Josh Hart is not letting his best friend Jalen Brunson have a clean victory lap.
Hours after New York Magazine published a cover story on Jalen Brunson celebrating the Knicks' first NBA championship in 53 years, Hart fired off a reply to the magazine's tweet with a simple but pointed question: "I beg your pardon….HE DOES WHAT??"
The target was the cover's subheadline, "Jalen Brunson takes it all in," a phrase intended to capture Brunson stepping fully into his role as the face of New York basketball after the franchise's title run, but one that landed with an unmistakable double entendre for anyone paying attention.
The cover story, written by Tom Kludt and titled "Jalen Brunson's Victory Lap," ran Wednesday among NY Magazine's top stories. The accompanying headline read "It's Good to Be King."
That framing is hard to argue with on the merits. Brunson averaged 32.6 points across the five-game NBA Finals and took home Finals MVP honors. In the Game 5 clincher against the San Antonio Spurs on June 13, he dropped 45 points, a Knicks record for points in a Finals game, topping Willis Reed's 38-point mark from 1970, as New York closed out the series 94-90. The Knicks finished the postseason 16-3, outscoring opponents by 283 points and winning nine straight road playoff games, according to the NBA.
Hart, who chipped in 13 points in that Game 5 clincher, has known Brunson long enough to earn the right to troll. The two go back to their Villanova days, where both won NCAA championships, and they co-host the "Roommates Show" podcast together.
The two celebrated together at Yankee Stadium on June 17, throwing out ceremonial first pitches four days after the title. The next stop on the friendship tour: a live "Roommates Show" taping at The Seaport on July 17, where they will presumably have plenty of new material.
