Another ceiling smashed: Stevenson grad Brunson brings his unlikely story to NBA Finals

Before the 2013 IHSA Class 4A state championship game in Peoria, Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose took a chance at building his team's confidence as they prepared to face three-time defending state champ Simeon.

“I made the bold, goofy prediction in the locker room, that like, 'We have the best player on the floor,'” Ambrose recalled. “I think some of the guys looked at me like, 'Coach, they have Jabari Parker out there.'

“I'm like, 'Yeah, he's really good, he's incredible. But we have the best player on the floor.'”

Parker was about to win his fourth state title, was headed to Duke and a year later, would become the No. 2 pick of the NBA Draft.

But Stevenson had sophomore Jalen Brunson. Things didn't pan out that night, Stevenson lost 58-40. In hindsight, though, it was a pretty sharp prediction.

“I was trying to give confidence to our team and give Jalen credit,” Ambrose said. “But really, especially that first half, he was clearly the best player on the floor, just his ability to control the game.”

This isn't meant as a knock on Parker, but a celebration of Brunson's steady, incredible rise. On Monday, he was a unanimous pick as MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals. He'll lead the New York Knicks to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 when the San Antonio-Oklahoma City series ends.

ESPN pointed out how the list of players 6-foot-2 or smaller who led their teams to an NBA title, as the clear best player on the roster, includes two names — Isiah Thomas and Steph Curry. Brunson could be the third.

He was a sensation in high school, finally leading Stevenson to a state title in 2015. But who could have known he was good enough to win two NCAA titles in three years at Villanova?

Then famously, he lasted until the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft, chosen No. 33 overall by Dallas. Rather than stick with Luka Doncic and the Mavericks, Brunson joined the Knicks as a free agent.

Again, nobody anticipated what was in store. With the ball in his hands full-time, Brunson became even more dangerous. Ambrose suggested that while the Spurs' Victor Wembanyama may own the sky, Brunson controls the floor with his footwork, anticipation and intelligence.

“He's just broken through every ceiling that people put on him,” Ambrose said. “People will be like, 'He can't be that good' or 'He's too small, too slow.' But he's just a master. He's a complete savant in terms of intellectual abilities or dealing with people.”

For the next few weeks, prepare to be reminded of all the great Knicks players who never reached the Finals. People like Carmelo Anthony, Stephon Marbury, Amare Stoudemire, Bernard King. The most recent Knicks championship was 1973, when Phil Jackson wore the uniform.

When asked to reflect on the accomplishment Monday, Brunson chose to postpone his answer for later.

“It means a lot,” he said. “It's something I haven't really put into perspective and thought about, because we're still writing our story. I like the journey we're on right now.”

Brunson's local history can be traced directly to his father. Rick Brunson joined the Bulls as a player for the start of the 2002 season, when Jalen was 6, and stayed for two years, off and on.

Rick Brunson returned as an assistant coach under Tom Thibodeau in 2010, when Jalen was starting eighth grade. Rick left after two seasons to join the Charlotte coaching staff, while Jalen remained at Stevenson.

One way to picture this story is how Rick Brunson attended a high school for troubled youth in Salem, Mass., but defied the odds and spent nine years as a fringe NBA player.

Jalen had a much more comfortable beginning and took plenty of positive traits from his mother, Sandra, but probably broke through more ceilings than his dad, who drove him relentlessly. Rick remains an assistant coach with the Knicks after reuniting with Thibodeau in 2022.

The high school ties remain strong. Jalen proposed to his wife, Ali, on the Stevenson basketball court, a moment well-documented on Instagram. He's also held a youth camp there and funded college scholarships since joining the NBA eight years ago.

For Ambrose, it all started when Jalen walked into the gym as an eighth-grader in the summer of 2010.

“People were speculating already,” Ambrose said. “Is he going to be on varsity, is he going to start? And I was like, 'Yeah, he's good.' I couldn't totally predict the very next year, he'd be starting (on varsity) from Day 1.

“He was really so poised and smooth and confident and smart. He's born to win.”

Four more victories would qualify Brunson as one of the NBA's all-time great floor leaders, no doubt.