3x NBA All-Star Reacts to Jalen Brunson’s Shocking Knicks Contract

A few days ago, Jalen Brunson took one of the most historic discount contracts in NBA history with the New York Knicks. He agreed on a four-year $156 million extension, taking $113 million less guaranteed than what he was eligible to receive. It was a contract that shocked both NBA fans and players.

During an episode of The Gil’s Arena show, 3x NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas gave major praise to Brunson for being willing to take such a shocking discount for the team.

“You talking about friendly, woo my God,” Arenas said. “Woo that was friendly. If he’d just played through the end of the year, that would have been at least $270 [million]. If you look at any franchise, if you look at any dynasty, it’s off of contracts like this.”

As much as Gilbert Arenas praised Brunson for taking the contract, he heeded a warning as well. The former Memphis Grizzlies guard hopes that Brunson has another contract waiting for him because the NBA is a business.

“The fact that he did sacrifice as a healthy player this much money to keep building, shows what type of commitment he has to winning itself,” Brunson said. “I commend him, I wouldn’t have did it. They would have to have another contract waiting for me, this is the NBA, this is a business, and you can’t trust anybody.”

The fact that Jalen Brunson was willing to take on such a low contract gives the New York Knicks to sign even more exceptional players. In Arenas’ eyes, he likened it to Steph Curry taking a discount so that the Warriors could bring Kevin Durant. Hopefully, the Knicks have the same result.

“What he did right now is a beautiful thing for the organization because I don’t think they would have been in a championship window if this didn’t happen,” Arenas. “What they can do with the money they saved is they can go get franchise players. Just like Steph is a franchise player, and they went and got Kevin Durant. They can do that, this franchise can actually go out and sign an Embiid, they can sign a Luka, because they have that much money.”

The pressure is on now for the New York Knicks. Jalen Brunson did his part, and now the Knicks have to do theirs and bring in the talent to win a championship.