EXCLUSIVE: Jalen Brunson On Winning NBA Title, Viral Meme & Second Round Foundation | NY Got Game

Dexter Henry here for another edition of New York got game special edition special guest to talk to today. It is the fourth annual Jalen Brunson charity golf classic and dinner and we're here in Westchester to talk to two special guests Jalen Brunson MVP of the 2026 NBA finals and his mom Sandra Brunson here with me to talk about this guys. How you doing? Good. Thanks. Thanks for having us. Well, I'm really really happy to have you guys here today because of what you're doing and should be noted that you guys also are the co-founders of the second round Foundation something. I know you guys are both very it's very near and dear to your heart here. This is the fourth year of this charity golf event that the two of you have to help the second round Foundation and obviously this is a little different because Jalen here coming off of winning the NBA championship. And so I think for all of us and outside it's different but for you having this event for the fourth year, right? Does it hit differently in any way Jalen and Sandra coming off the NBA championship? Is there anything different about the way this year feels doing this event for the fourth time? Can I start? That is that's nice. He's nice in jail. He's a mom first. It's not different. I would say that the the awareness and the exposure is slightly different. It's elevated. What Jalen and his teammates have done on the court has amplified, you know, the goals that he has as a philanthropic individual. It's just amplified our mission and vision and we're truly grateful for that. We couldn't imagine having the amount of exposure that we have had but what he's done on the court. To promote and amplify what we were trying to do off the court. Jalen you feel it agrees your mom there that the exposure has maybe changed how this feels and have you felt that at all today? Just being in and around the event. Yeah, definitely felt a little a little bit like like mom said doesn't really change that much. But the like you can feel the excitement. You can feel like the energy a little bit differently. But um the approach everything that we've we've done that done on that has been the same and for you I know on the court is always about the approach being the same but I have to think about the name of your Foundation guy second round, right? Because that's that's always stuck out to me and I know fans are going to see that to second round is synonymous with you Jalen being a second round pick. I think it's always a being overlooked underestimated, right? That's always kind of been there. Now that you was the second round pick you become an NBA champion has the name of your Foundation has that changed in meaning for you? Is it maybe more meaningful for you now that you've reached the mountaintop of the NBA? No, the name still still feels the same for me. It's obviously winning has helped but like the name and our mission everything we go about doing is stays the same. I mean the purpose is that is to fulfill your goals is to achieve your goals. And so I think that the name and everything it fits right on line. It's it's perfect. Yeah, I do think I do think it's great and it aligns. So so well with you. It's not Sandra to go back to you because you're not just Jalen's mom. Everybody's gonna say to me. Hey, you're Jalen's mom. You're not just that we all so much more than one thing, but you the co-founder and CFO of the second round Foundation as this is grown and you've watched this grow. Is there something that tells you? Hey, we're actually really succeeding is their story with a young person where you guys do a lot of help with young people that tells you hey, this is where the second round Foundation is sort of the trajectory is really good and going upward. Is there something to me that comes to mind for you? There's a lot that comes to mind. But if I were to pinpoint one specific outreach or point of contact is when Jalen is front and center and in person with young people they ask him about like his mindset and how does he overcome certain things children are really invested in understanding how does someone raise up beyond, you know, a deficit or the challenges and I think that while getting drafted in the second round is truly not the worst thing that could happen to someone they can connect with his climb his uphill battle and that's what it's all about to allowing children to understand that despite the circumstances where you start doesn't mean that's where you'll finish and he has been a beacon for that mantra so to speak and has connected with a lot of young people to aspire to achieve beyond their goals and beyond their wildest dreams that mantra I think about in helping you know, young people Jalen. I've been around you in the in the locker room at games of senior press conferences. A lot of times you've talked about the magic is in the work of what you do. That's something you've talked about a lot and your mom just talked about young people seeing that you being able to motivate them in that way when young people come to the foundation and now they see the work and they see the work of you now having won a championship here with the Knicks. How important is it to show them that all the unglamorous stuff, right? Because now it's a glamour. Now, you've won the championship and people see it in like a Jalen Brunson NBA championship, but how important is it for you to tell young people about the work that came before that to get via NBA champion? Yeah, it's very important because it's it's most of your life. No one everyone sees like the championship and sees when you're on top like no one sees the majority of your journey, which is the work you put in and so it just doesn't it doesn't happen overnight. It's it's it's day after day after day. It's every uphill battle. You're going through every mental hurdle. You're going through. There's so many things that go into a day-to-day to get you to that point. And so the journey is beautiful. And I think everyone should cherish it and understand it. So when you do get to the point where you do when you do achieve your long-term goal, which is that much better. Yeah, no doubt about that. I gotta ask you both. What's this summer been like for you? Because it is changed. You Jalen, you're shaking your head here. Yeah, I'm sure there's been a lot. There's been a lot of media requests. There's been a lot of different things you've had to do, but has anything changed for you this summer? What's what's just the summer been like for you since winning the championship? Has anything changed? Not really. With me like personally it's been a lot though. Obviously, there's a lot of a lot of obligation. You have to do a lot of things have already structured into your calendar. A lot of things added in. So they've been a lot of things of that. But I'm still been trying to make time for my family's so big time for my main job recovering and so yes, there's been a lot of added things. But nothing's really changed for me. What about you mom to I don't want to how's has anything changed for you? And and was this for you what you thought it would be seeing your son get a top the NBA Mountain. I don't know really what I would have expected to be at the top of the NBA Mountain. And I and I feel like as although he's he's there his teammates. They're there. They still have room to grow. Believe it or not. I expect more. You sound you sound like Jalen. I think that the team is just scratching the surface. They're just getting their legs and because as you know in covering the teams throughout the year, there's been peaks and valleys, you know, there's been like we don't know what team is going to show up and at some point in the postseason the true team showed up and it's been a wonderful ride. It's been hard. I just think that everything that it's been busy. It's been shortened because of the long season. It's been short in it, but it's a blessing at the same time. The alternative so I'm not going to take anything less than that. We are learning from it as a family and just trying to go through the ebbs and flows and to just stay true to who we are despite all of the fandom and it's just really a blessing to be able to see how the team success has brought the city together the state and I would say the country because there are a lot of fans that have shown up across the country for New York because this postseason has shown that this team can fight through adversity. So adversity was a word that was used a lot. Jalen winning it. Was it what you thought it would be? I know we all think about dreams and goals and this is part of the foundation and where you talk with young people, right? Visualizing seeing things ahead. When you look at that, was it what you thought it would be winning an NBA championship? Yes and no. I kind of understood what the feeling would be like but like in the in the in the moment that happening. I understood like what that would be like. I knew I'd be emotional just everything after that is what I wasn't expecting. Yeah, because a lot like you said, there's a lot that's come out of it after this summer but now you finally Jalen get to hear the words NBA champion attached to your name for the rest of your life and your foundation the second round Foundation. I see I see the emotion in my that you're showing. I think what you hear a lot is everybody always talks about how winning an NBA championship changes the way that people see you right how they look at you right before is your second round pick. Now you can say Jalen Brunson NBA champion, right? Sandra Brunson mother of an NBA champion, but I guess my question for you Jalen is how is becoming an NBA champion change the way that you see yourself? Hasn't I wouldn't do it. It went and it won't it's going to be the same thing. It will be this. I'll be the same. It's something that I get to walk around with and think about when I'm when I need to give myself a little confidence or whatever just in certain situations, but my approach and everything has to be the same. I just because I reached the the mountaintop of winning a championship doesn't mean that like it's it's over with so I feel like there's still a lot more to do a lot more that I can prove but it's 100% always going to be in my mind. It's just it's not going to define me. Now, it feels like that's part of the message that you can have the young people in your foundation, right? That even if you get to your pinnacle, you mentioned that before Jalen, the point of everything you've worked for there still always is something more to do. You have to ask Jalen, you've become part of one of the biggest memes this summer you're at Donovan Mitchell's wedding Jalen Brown filming you, you stare right into the camera while you're doing a little two-step. What was going on in your mind there? And did you think that would become as big as a viral meme as it ended up becoming? Not at all. I didn't I just saw him like at the corner of my eye recording me and I've known him since eighth grade high school like really for like a long time and just didn't think anything of it as a song recorded me and just went along with my evening and then you wake up next morning. You see all over the place. It was everywhere. You weren't thinking anything as you're looking in the camera. Just I won't say you look crazy, but it was funny. You just focus. I wasn't I wasn't thinking anything. I just thought it was a little funny moment and then people just ran with it. They did. The internet definitely did going back to the foundation and everything here. Winning a championship is obviously giving the both of you an even bigger platform right? You had before which I'm sure you would say is a blessing here when something like that happens. Do you feel like there's a greater responsibility for you to use that attention to elevate the work that you're doing now that you have the word NBA champion attached to what you guys are doing? I think it can help but regardless of what I would accomplish. I think I would be doing something to get back anyway. So I would I wouldn't let it define us. I think it's important to maybe use it. Yeah, kind of grow our reach but to let it define us. I think that would it would help but I don't think deep down is what we want to really be like our thing. It's a cool name to add on hundred percent. Yeah. So you appreciate the name being added on but I think it's cool. Just know that a no matter what happens with it with us our family with me. We're the same Sandra Jalen talked about we saw this everybody saw this publicly when he won the championship how emotional he got. I'm sure it was for you too, but you saw your son when the cameras weren't around when the rest of the media wasn't around like me and in the locker room, you saw everything with him through this entire journey. What do you see from him in those first few hours or days following winning the championship that told you how much reaching that goal finally meant to him Jalen is the ultimate worker. I felt like while in the moment we celebrated moments after days after but I could see in from my perspective that he was like, okay next what's next because he's not satisfied reaching the pinnacle or the mountaintop. It's great. But his career is still he has he's still you know thriving in his career and it's still an uptick. I think that he what's the next challenge. What's the next hurdle? I saw that in him. He everyone sees him as a very focused and disciplined individual while he's on the court off the court. He allowed himself the time to absorb the love and the attention and the appreciation that was felt from the championship. But I think in the back of his mind, he's just like, okay, what's the next thing? I think he's the type of person that when his career is over he'll look back and appreciate everything that he and his teammates have accomplished. But while in the moment, I think he's already thinking how can I get better? And that's just something what we've instilled in our children from a very young age just to always strive to be better in any and everything that you do and that's just the type of person he is and I think that's what he was thinking days after I'll say after the parade. I'll give him a little time. But after the parade, he's ready. Yes, and he's just he's just ready to attack and ready to to formulate the program or whatever the goals are for the summer leading into the next year. So I have a couple more things for you and you just talked about goals for the summer and Jalen, you and I were talking about this before we started recording about rehabbing from an injury and how difficult that can be. You had the wrist injury. How has that been for you? And has a rehab process taught you anything about patience that you're going through through your as you try to get through the offseason? It's reminded me a lot about patience for sure. But it's it's a steady process and it's it's something that I honestly like it is what it is. It's something you're going to attack every day and just find a way to continue to improve. That is added to your legend that you played with the injury through the finals. Have you thought about that at all and how that has added to your legend in any way? No, I haven't at all. Just I just knew that the opportunity rarely presents itself, you know, to be in a position like that. So I just wasn't going to let something that seemed minor take me out. just whatever needs to be done. Just just focus on afterwards. Whatever needs to be done. That is what the both of you are trying to do with the Second Round Foundation and here at your Charity Golf Classic for the fourth year. Congratulations guys fourth year. You guys have been doing it. I want to thank you both for sitting down with me. This was this was beautiful. Jalen, appreciate you. Good luck with the recovery. Sandra, keep up the great work. You guys are doing great work together. And now there's an NBA champion attached to you as well, which is a beautiful day. Still pinching yourself? You're still feeling it? That's still in game four. When I see that's a good. Hey, that's a good vibe to have when I see the energy from both of you. Seriously. I mean that salute to both you for the work you're doing and we'll continue to do and you know, I've been talking everybody through the summer and saying what's up champ. So salute to you guys. Thank you for Jalen Brunson and Sandra Brunson. This is Dexter Henry signing off.