At the Apex Part 1: Jalen Brunson

Jalen Brunson has the highest approval rating a Knicks superstar has enjoyed since Patrick Ewing was patrolling the paint at the Garden. His arrival as a relatively unheralded free agent and transformation into one of the best players in basketball saved the franchise—his impact cannot be overstated.

As he approaches his fourth playoff run with the Knicks, a bubbling tension remains: can a team led by a small guard like Jalen Brunson win a championship? That question has only gotten louder as the years have gone on, and this postseason presents an inflection point that may define how Brunson is remembered as a Knick.

The Knicks haven't won a championship in 53 years. Entire generations of Knicks fans have grown up without seeing their favorite team hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy. It's a point that rival fan bases always make sure to remind us of any time the Knicks come close to being considered a championship contender.

Jalen Brunson is the latest in a long line of players—from Bernard King to Patrick Ewing to Allan Houston to Carmelo Anthony to Julius Randle—that have been tasked with delivering a title to this fan base that craves success with every ounce of their being. All those who have come before him have failed, and this season seems like it might be his best chance to break through. The team has had a rocky but successful regular season and is well-positioned to make a run in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

In front of Brunson, the face of the franchise and the captain of this team, is a fork in the road. The lighter side of the fork is the path to prosperity and immortality—the path that means he led this beleaguered franchise to a title. If he can get there, he will become a god in the city unlike we have seen in decades.

His prowess as a scorer will have books written about him. His choice to sacrifice salary to outfit the team with a legitimate title-contending roster will be remembered as a selfless act of prioritizing winning. Generations of fans will remember him the way that a previous generation remembers Clyde Frazier and Willis Reed.

A trip down that path encapsulates Brunson's greatness in amber, and he becomes the prince that was promised. He will be mythologized as the player who saved the Knicks, and he will instantly be viewed as contending for the title of greatest Knick of all-time.

These are the stakes for Brunson, a reward handsome beyond measure. He has already proven himself to be an elite playoff riser: as a Knick, he has averaged 30 points and 7 assists per game in the playoffs. The missing piece is to be the ultimate winner. The opportunity felt like it was there last year, but they came up short in the Conference Finals. This year, the pressure to define his story comes with even more expectations.

But what if Brunson's path leads him down the other path—the path of another premature playoff exit? What if they are bounced in the second round by the same Boston team they vanquished last season? Then the conversation around Brunson and whether he can truly lead a team to the promised land is once again up for debate.

Becky Hammon famously said that Brunson is not a "1A" superstar and that a guard that small as the primary scoring option doesn't lead to titles. It's a characterization that fans have detested, mainly because it's so reductive. But another season passing without a Finals trip will cause many to start wondering: Is Brunson's Knicks career merely the Eastern Conference version of Damian Lillard in Portland?

Lillard is one of the most heralded and beloved players in Blazers franchise history. But in eight playoff trips, he only made the Conference Finals once. He was ultimately a great player who wasn't great enough to deliver a championship as the primary scoring option. A failure this season in the playoffs, when the Knicks seem to have the best chance they have in decades, could result in Brunson being looked at in the same vein as Lillard: a tremendous scorer who got you to big games but couldn't close the deal.

The risk for Brunson is also relevant to the path in front of him. Tyrese Haliburton is out of the picture. Cade Cunningham is dealing with a collapsed lung, and his postseason availability is unknown as of today. Jayson Tatum, while back from his Achilles injury, presents reintegration issues for the Celtics in the postseason, and the Cavaliers are the ultimate wildcard with the addition of James Harden midseason. If there was ever an opportunity to elevate this generation of Knicks basketball, it is in this moment.

There is a fine line between good and great in the NBA. Rising in the playoffs and delivering upon the potential you showed is what separates that line. It is that line that Jalen Brunson is attempting to cross to prove he has always been the franchise player we have imagined him to be. If he succeeds, it is an affirmation of what we suspected. If he fails, there will be conversations about his ability to carry the load as the top option, where failure likely means a massive trade in the offseason.

This postseason is a referendum on Jalen Brunson's greatness in the totality of his career. Success means immortality, while failure is affirmation of the critiques that have followed him his entire career. He has shown himself to be an excellent performer, but this playoff run will show us once and for all if he is truly the savior that we have all clamored for or just another maddening Knicks player who got close and came up short.