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New York Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson’s commitment has blown away USA Basketball officials.
“I already love Jalen Brunson and now I love his fiancée even more,” U.S. head coach Steve Kerr was quoted by AP texting Jay Wright right after Brunson informed him that he and his now-wife Ali Marks were moving up their wedding not to miss the chance to play for Team USA.
Not only did the Brunsons move up their wedding date (scheduled initially on Sept. 2) to last Saturday, but they also postponed their honeymoon to allow the Knicks star to join Team USA’s training camp in Las Vegas.
“I’ve always admired that kid,” USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill told AP. “And I just felt as you start looking at the next iteration of USA Basketball, and the guard position, I like our young guys. They’re all good people. And I don’t want this to come off the wrong way, but just from a character, substance standpoint, he was a guy who I just thought is incredible. When he said, ‘It was always a dream of mine to be a part of this and I don’t want to miss this opportunity,’ I just said, ‘Wow.’”
The 26-year-old Brunson could not pass up on the opportunity to play for the senior Men’s team after being a member of the U.S. Select Team in 2019 and an MVP run to lead Team USA to win the 2015 FIBA Under-19 World Cup gold medal.
“You don’t really get a lot of opportunities like this,” Brunson told reporters in Las Vegas. “I obviously had to make sure everything was OK on the personal side, but everything worked out.”
Kerr said in July that he would lean heavily on Brunson in their 2023 FIBA World Cup gold medal bid in his maiden campaign as the national team’s head coach.
Brunson’s unconditional commitment only goes to show Kerr has the right leader for such a young squad hoping to surpass the disastrous seventh-place finish of the previous iteration of Team USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
Jalen Brunson Makes Incredible Play in Team USA’s Scrimmage
Brunson did not waste any time to prove his worth as he drilled in a four-point play during their first scrimmage at the USA Basketball training camp.
A four-point play for Jalen Brunson at Team USA practice 😤
Brunson is coming off his best season in the NBA, averaging career highs of 24 points and 6.2 assists per game last season to lead the Knicks to their first second-round appearance in the playoffs in a decade.
Josh Hart Explains Why He Opts in Than Test Free Agency
Josh Hart could have gotten a sizable contract in the open market. But he agreed to opt into the final year (worth $12.9 million) of his contract in June.
Hart explained to reporters at the Team USA camp in Las Vegas the reason behind what he said was a “difficult decision.”
“New York is somewhere I want to be,” Hart said via SNY. “We’ll get everything else, hopefully, later down the line. But I opted in because New York is where I wanted to be, it is where I want to call home, I felt like this was the best decision to do. … I wanted to stay in New York, I wanted to give this team the best chance to be the best team they can be to go out there and compete. And opting in was definitely something that was going to help us build and continue to build. So, I felt like that was something I wanted to do, something the team wanted, too.”
Knicks can extend Hart to a long-term deal in the range of $75 million, four-year extension, per New York Daily News’ Stefan Bondy, starting next week.
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USA Basketball ‘Blown Away’ by Knicks Star Jalen Brunson