I'm not a sports person. It takes a lot to get me excited about basketball. But I am a lifelong New Yorker — we don't talk about my current stint in New Jersey — and the Knicks' championship even got me fired up.

But this is a newsletter about talent, so why am I writing about basketball?

Because a lot of things had to go right for the Knicks to win. They had to rally from double-digit deficits in every game that they won. They had to pull off a Game 4 miracle, coming back from 29 points down before OG Anunoby tipped in the game-winner. In Game 5, team captain Jalen Brunson scored a series-high 45 points — almost as much as the rest of the team combined.

After the win, Brunson was named MVP. As he put it afterward, it was everything he'd ever dreamed of.

But Brunson’s most critical contribution may have come nearly two years earlier, in July 2024, when he signed his four-year contract extension for $156.5 million. That’s a lot of money, but it was roughly $113 million less than he could have had if he waited a year to hit free agency.

That decision wasn't just generous. By leaving money on the table, Brunson kept the Knicks clear of the NBA's "second apron," a hard spending threshold that functions like a salary cap and would have severely restricted their ability to build out the roster. In practical terms, his sacrifice created the financial runway the organization needed to invest in the talent around him — including Anunoby.

The on-court heroics are one thing. Just as important is what Brunson made possible off the court. When a leader puts their money where their mouth is, it sends a message to the rest of the team.

If you still doubt that this is really a talent acquisition story, take a look at the stock price for Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. — the publicly traded company that owns the Knicks.

When Brunson signed as a free agent in July 2022, shares traded around $149. By this June, the stock peaked close to $394 — a more than 2.5x climb during Brunson's tenure.

We talk about team building and culture constantly in talent acquisition. Jalen Brunson and the Knicks are reminders that culture is modeled from the top, and that teams are built by example.

— David

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