Jalen Brunson has officially scripted history, leading the New York Knicks to the NBA Championship for the first time since 1973, and in doing so, he’s joined an elite list. A list that includes some of the NBA’s greatest players, such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. Brunson’s former coach at Villanova, Jay Wright, has thus taken the opportunity to congratulate his former protege on the historic achievement.
Brunson has now become the latest individual after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Bill Walton as the only players to win the NCAA title, Naismith College Player of the Year, NBA Championship and NBA Finals MVP.
On the stunning accomplishment, Wright commented, “Incredible company,” referring to Brunson being included in the same conversation as Jordan, Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar.
Jay Wright himself played a part in Brunson pulling off this honor, with the Knicks star winning the NCAA championship and the Naismith College Player of the Year award while Wright was his head coach at Villanova University.
What did Jalen Brunson and Jay Wright accomplish together?
Jalen Brunson and Jay Wright were synonymous with success together at Villanova. Under the tutelage of Wright, Brunson bagged the National Player of the Year honor in 2018, but it came after they had already worked in tandem to secure the 2016 NCAA championship before doing it again in 2018.
Brunson also won the Big East Player of the Year during his time at Villanova alongside other major honors and has credited Wright for a lot of his early learnings in basketball.
“One thing he always said, it’s plastered on every wall, every shirt, the inside of our jerseys — everything — was attitude,” Brunson has said about Wright, per the New York Post.
“Controlling your attitude. I don’t really say that as much as I used to, but I think my kind of twist on it is being able to control what you can control.”
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