Jalen Brunson got the easy week. The hard one is about to start, and Kendrick Perkins has already drawn the legacy map.
After the New York Knicks swept the Philadelphia 76ers to reach a second straight Eastern Conference Finals, First Take returned to its favourite Monday morning subject: how good are these Knicks, really, and how much does it matter that Brunson is the one driving them. Stephen A. Smith arrived in head-to-toe orange and blue and a championship mood. Perkins was the one who set the stakes.
"Do you realize what's at stake right now for Jalen Brunson?" Perkins asked. "If he goes out and lead this team and wins the championship, he will be the greatest Knick of all time. Yes, I said it. The greatest Knick of all time. He will join elite company. And that company is Steph Curry, Isaiah Thomas, two small guards that completed the mission. Because the whole narrative has been that a small guard, meaning a guard 6'3 and under, cannot lead a team to a championship. It's only been two that done it."
Perkins did not soften it. "If he goes out and lead this team to win a championship, I don't want to hear about Frazier. I don't want to hear none of those names. Jaylen Brunson, aka Big Body Brunson, would be the greatest Knick ever."
Brunson himself did not chase any of that. The 29-year-old averaged 29 points on 51 percent shooting and 45 percent from three through the Philadelphia series, and his post-game interview after the closeout was a study in deflection. "It was a roller coaster for sure," Brunson said. "I think outside of the New York Knicks organization, things looked worse than what they were from the outside looking in. But from everyone inside the building, we are working every single day to be the best team we can be. The journey shows you who you are, and this journey's been pretty good."
The numbers underneath Perkins' claim are real. The Knicks are now the fourth team in NBA history with multiple 30-point series-clinching wins in a single postseason. The other three — the 2025 Thunder, the 2008 Celtics and the 1987 Lakers — all went on to win the Finals. New York shot 57 percent from three in the Game 4 sweep of the Sixers and outscored Philadelphia by an average of 22 points across the four games.
Stephen A. Smith picked up Perkins' baton. "New York Knicks shoot the basketball like that, they're going to win a championship," Smith said. "They're going to win a championship. Let me be very clear. It don't have to be 57 percent. But if you're shooting effectively from the three, if you're getting contributions with your depth, New York Knicks going to win a championship. I love the point center that Karl-Anthony Towns has become. I love the adjustments that clearly Mike Brown has made. They look different than they did in the regular season."
Smith was even more pointed on Mikal Bridges, the trade-deadline acquisition who had drawn his open scepticism. "Same energy is here," Smith said. "That's what we need to see from Mikal Bridges. No hesitancy in the stroke, defending out there, contributing to an annihilation, outscoring the Sixers by an average of 22 points per game in this series. Winning seven straight, annihilating the competition. That's what we expect."
The next test will not be Philadelphia. The Detroit Pistons are battling Cleveland in a Game 7 with a date in the Eastern Conference Finals on the line, and the Knicks' tougher work begins from the moment the buzzer sounds. Perkins' framing of Brunson, though, is the one that will travel. Win this, and the conversation in New York stops being about the Knicks' last 50 years. It becomes about who Brunson now sits beside.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/jalen-brunson-greatest-knick-perkins-isiah-curry-first-take-may-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
