O’Donnell: Case building that Jalen Brunson may be the greatest local athlete ever
THE EMERGING EMINENCE OF NBA CHAMPIONSHIPS FUTURE this weekend quite likely is Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs.
The league's Defensive Player of the Year is 7-foot-4, 22 years old and does things on a basketball court that men a foot shorter once couldn't imagine.
He'll be on display again Sunday when the developing Spurs try to even their Western Conference Finals at 2-2 vs. the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder (7 p.m., NBC, Peacock).
BUT IF THERE IS A MAN MEETING HIS MOMENT, a basketball thespian taking Broadway forever higher, it's Jalen Brunson of the Knicks.
The North suburban Stevenson High grad has been so spectacular in the Eastern Conference title series against Cleveland that he alone is essentially making it must-view TV.
Game 4 is Monday (7 p.m., ABC/ESPN).
Brunson is on the cusp of once again making Madison Square Garden the center of the basketball universe.
HE IS THE ALL-IN ALPHA who is sending secondary-market tickets at MSG to obscene levels and energizing ringside celebrities ranging from perennials like Spike Lee and John McEnroe and Chris Rock on over to a new kid on the gawk like Timothée Chalamet.
Brunson's mental toughness and sense of where he is seems indomitable.
Back home, when the regal dribbles settle, the question will be dissected about whether he is the greatest pro athlete ever produced by a Daily Herald-area high school.
THAT WILL BE an intense survey for another day.
In the interim, it's “savor the moments.”
Because no one can question:
Brunson Theater has thoroughly juiced a 2026 NBA playoffs that opened with all the whiz of a dunk tank in desperate need of inflating air.
STREET-BEATIN':
Surreal week for auto racing in America with the sudden death of Kyle Busch on Thursday and a banner Sunday featuring both the Indy 500 (11:30 a.m.; Fox and Fox One) and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 (5 p.m.; Prime Video and the always sensory numbing driver-cam on HBO Max). Katherine Legge, a 45-year-old Brit, is scheduled to be the first woman to drive in both. …
Remaining listeners report that David “Chatty” Kaplan has dusted off his “angry Chicago sports booster” persona at WMVP-AM (1000). Cute, although Bruce Wolf tribute artists play to bigger audiences. …
After years of boycotting, AM-1000 finally reappeared in the latest Nielsen Audios and checked in at a subterranean 21st. WSCR-AM (670), buoyed by the Cubs, tied for eighth, although that's an asterisked uptick amid the decay of terrestrial radio in Chicago. Market leader remains the fashionably confusing rocker WXRT-FM (93.1). …
The Cleveland Plain-Dealer is rolling the Lake Erie seashells and returning readers comments to its website (cleveland.com) but only about the city's major sports teams. That's bad news for perennial NBA playoffs fader James Harden of the Cavs but a kudos moment for executive editor Chris Quinn. The canny Quinn retains appropriate trepidation about bringing back political word warfare. …
The amazingly resilient Dick Vitale and wife Lorraine celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary. She took him on when he was an elementary school basketball coach in New Jersey. No college basketball broadcaster of the past five decades has brought more fun and animation to the game. Dickie V also used to host a lively golf weekend for sports media columnists near his opulent Florida digs. …
Retired Father Med Laz — founding pastor of Holy Family Church in Inverness — has completed work on his latest book, “What Makes America America.” During his local ministry, the freewheeling Father Med took many pre-race paddock confessions at Arlington Park, especially from Louie Roussel, Tom Morgan and Juvie Diaz. …
NBC's coverage of the 2026 Preakness couldn't have been more snoozy if it was originating from the Sycamore (Ill.) Speedway. Even the absence of Mike Tirico didn't help. And now, with Churchill Downs Inc. likely to assume “intellectual property rights” to the race next year, fear should be coursing through all of racing in Maryland. …
Steve Kashul, one of Our Town's all-time good-guy golf authorities, is hosting a U.S. Open preview party at Hatty's Club in Rosemont on June 17. The first 156 attendees will participate in a random draw to be assigned a player and a shot at a clubhouse full of prizes. Kashul is set for the 33rd consecutive season of his “The Golf Scene” TV show, now seen on CHSN. Cart mate is Arlington Heights native Matt Smith. …
Strong words from reader Ed Plum of Barrington: “Kevin Warren and the farcical McCaskey family's words pass as gospel with (far too many regional) editorial boards and coverage. It's boosterism.” (Can he get an “amen” — or at least a Bears-generated traffic study for new stadium impact to hand to all effected area mayors?) …
Second-year Arlington Heights village president Jim Tinaglia takes time off from his Bears stadium bantering to open the Harmony Park summer concert season on June 4 with his rockin' Exit 147. (The band's YouTube samplers are actually good; Tinaglia the guitarist may be giving Elk Grove's Craig Johnson ideas.) …
And reliable barbed bard Phil Mushnick, on MLB's immersive spring overexposure: “The joy of weekend baseball is being ruined by the reality of having to watch it.”
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.