Star guard Jalen Brunson fractured his left hand in Knicks elimination game

After what was definitely his greatest season in the NBA, earning his first All-Star selection in February and tying Michael Jordan with most consecutive 40+point playoff games, Jalen Brunson’s run came to an end with tough news. The athlete broke his left hand and had his wrist immobilized in his team’s season-ending defeat to the Pacers in Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. 

The point guarded attended the press after the Knicks failure and was asked if he considered this campaign a success. “No,” he replied without a doubt. “Did we win the championship? Did we get close? So, no. That’s my mindset. That’s just how it is.”

The 27-year-old swiped down at rival Tyrese Haliburton in the third quarter and seemed to have hurt his left hand. He proceeded by going to the locker room, but eventually made his way back to the court. However, he was only back for 14 seconds before he realized his game, and season had come to an end.

This is probably where Jalen Brunson broke his hand pic.twitter.com/MhfVB6nHlh

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) May 19, 2024

“I thought I just jammed it, to be honest with you,” he expressed briefly before his quick return to the floor. “I looked down and knew something was wrong.”

Across his 13 postseason matches, the superstar averaged 32.4 points. This means he was second only to Sixers big man Joel Embiid, who got eliminated back in the first round.

Despite a great campaign, Jalen still thinks he has lots to improve. “I would say there’s pros and cons to how I played,” Brunson said looking back at his year. “The pros, obviously, are I played well individually at some points in the playoffs. The cons are that I didn’t play well enough to help my team move forward.

“You can say I got hurt in Game 7, I wasn’t playing well in Game 7. We had a 2-0 and a 3-2 lead, it’s just hard to look at things individually when you don’t help your team,” said the New York player.

Brunson believes that New York proved that they were able to succeed this season despite suffering many injury blows

One of the biggest questions that Jalen was asked during their postgame elimination, was if the club would’ve gotten farther this campaign if the Knicks roster would’ve remained healthy. By the end of Game 7, the club was missing out on Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic, Mitchell Robinson, and of course, Brunson.

“We’ll talk about that next year,” he said for now, but assured that the Manhattan squad proved they were strong without their main stars. “I think we’re making positive strides. We just need to make more.”

The 27-year-old now hopes to rest, recover from his hand injury and improve his game throughout the offseason. “I go into the summer every year looking back on how I could be better as a player, to be the most complete player I can be,” he expressed. “There’s obviously going to be a lot of things, X’s and O’s-wise, physically and other stuff I could do to be better.

“I think the most important thing that I need to do is to continue to just strive for perfection, just strive for perfection, and knowing that I’m never going to get there. Just, my mind says I just need to be better every single day. I don’t care what I’ve done as a player, it means nothing. … I’m going to go into this summer training to be better.”