NBA: Low-profile Jalen Brunson and teammates quietly taking the New York Knicks back to title contention

It also was correct.

The ESPN shouter boasts nearly 5 million Instagram followers and another 6 million on Twitter. The Knicks do not have one player who eclipses one million on either social network.

The Knicks, up to eight wins in a row and third place in the East, have been building their most promising team in at least a decade through solid drafting (Mitchell Robinson, Quentin Grimes), through savvy free-agent pick-ups (Donte DiVincenzo, Isaiah Hartenstein) and trade additions (Josh Hart, OG Anunoby) and by identifying talented players who could make the leap into something more (Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson).

They have not built themselves up — at least not yet — through acquiring star power.

It’s a smart way to build a team. It’s a poor way to build an All-Star team.

Brunson learned as much last week. The outstanding point guard probably did enough on the court to be named a starter for the Eastern Conference, but may not have done enough off the court to win the honour.

Brunson — averaging 26.8 points on 48.1 per cent shooting (including a career-best 42.2 per cent mark from 3-point range) with 6.5 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game after the Knicks put the finishing touches on a rollicking 14-2 month of January — finished second in media voting and third in player voting for what is a two-man backcourt.

But fans accounted for 50 per cent of the vote, which is where Brunson ran into trouble. Fans across the globe placed Brunson a distant fifth, behind Tyrese Haliburton, Trae Young, Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell, which ensured Haliburton and Lillard would be the East’s starting backcourt.

Brunson is averaging more points on more efficient shooting than Lillard and does not have a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo to draft off (notwithstanding DiVincenzo’s 33-point outburst and Hart’s 10-10-10 triple-double in Tuesday night’s win over the Jazz).

But Brunson also does not have a following like Lillard, who has 10.3 million people awaiting his every thought on Instagram. Brunson has around 370,000 followers.

Maybe that disparity of 9,930,000 is a starting point toward explaining why Lillard received nearly 800,000 more votes from the fans.

“People are starting to pay attention to some things off the field rather than on the field,” said Brandon Brown, a clinical assistant professor of sport management at NYU and president of the Sport Marketing Association. “And I think that’s kind of where sports consumers are these days. I think they care more so about, I guess, ancillary activities or extensions rather than the core product.”

Off the court, Lillard is seen on national commercials for products such as Gatorade, Foot Locker and Modelo. Off the court, Lillard helped LeBron James and some pals beat the aliens in the “Space Jam” sequel. Off the court, Lillard and Adidas have partnered to release eight editions of his signature basketball sneakers. Off the court, Lillard’s jersey has been the 10th-best-selling jersey for the first half of this season, according to the NBA.

It’s a lot harder to find commercials Brunson has appeared in. It’s infinitely harder to find Brunson’s signature shoes because they do not exist: He often has worn sneakers from the Kobe Bryant line. Brunson’s jersey did not crack the list of the 15 best-selling jerseys thus far this season.

For many reasons, Brunson’s off-court starpower is not matching his on-court starpower. Consider the Instagram followings of the four Eastern Conference guards who received more votes than him:

Tyrese Haliburton (692,000 followers)

Trae Young (5.1 million followers)

Lillard (10.3 million)

Donovan Mitchell (3.8 million followers)

The outlier among the group is Haliburton, whose social-media imprint is smaller — but that is changing.

The budding superstar is enjoying a breakout season that has come with breakout recognition. The world watched as he became a household name in the In-Season Tournament, in which the Pacers guard averaged 26.7 points, 13.3 assists and 4.9 rebounds in carrying his team to the title game.

Though the Pacers lost to the Lakers, the stage was won by Haliburton, who introduced himself to the country and beyond as the newest superstar in the NBA.

“Tyrese Haliburton is now a name that everyone knows,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters after the IST title game in December. “He’s going to be in the conversation for a lot of things from All-Star to All-NBA to MVP.”

Brunson has not been on the same kind of stage from which so many have launched. He has made a conference finals just once, with the Mavericks in 2022, when Dallas was shoved aside by Golden State in five games. Brunson had a fine series, but played second fiddle to Luka Doncic (8.6 million Instagram followers), whose shadow Brunson lived in before arriving in New York.

In New York, Brunson has established himself as arguably an on-court superstar. But even his game — filled with starts and stops and maximising angles rather than racing by someone; filled with an assortment of nifty moves around the hoop because his dunks don’t come easy — doesn’t always lend itself to the way most fans today absorb the games.

“The majority of following is taking place in different consumption methods, either watching TV or following online,” Brown said over the phone on Tuesday. “ … On-field play doesn’t necessarily drive [brand-building] results anymore.

“Even if it leads to a championship — I think that that championship in and of itself represents the glitz and the glamour and represents something greater than on the-field play.”

There isn’t a ton of glamour to Brunson’s game. Casual fans in China probably prefer Lillard’s impossibly deep 3 to help his then-Blazers team move on in the playoffs (a dagger that came packaged with a meme-able moment, Lillard staring stoically into the camera as the world around him exploded).

Casual fans in China probably prefer the long-term greatness of LeBron James (159 million Instagram followers). And the highlight-reel phenom that is Stephen Curry (56 million). And the dribbling magic and, uhh, creative theories of Kyrie Irving (19.8 million), who reminds that being polarising often also means being interesting.

Brunson came to New York, the biggest stage of all, and did not receive the Big Apple bump that welcomed so many athletes before him. It is not that the game has changed but the fandom: New Yorkers voting for All-Star starters are not just competing with fans in, say, Milwaukee, but billions of fans across the globe who might not know Brunson’s name — while they are well-aware of “Dame Time.”

“Local regions aren’t as important as they used to be,” Brown said.

More important than ever, for athletes’ brands at least, is caring about your public image. Some athletes double as fashion moguls and make headline-worthy entrances into arenas, which furthers their reach. Some dabble in acting or singing, finding other revenue streams. Some hire teams of social-media managers to ensure each moment is captured and shared in the most pristine and engaging manner possible.

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Probably worth noting about Brunson’s low Instagram following is his comparatively sparse 353 posts. Lillard is approaching 5,000.

“A lot of players just don’t care,” Brown said. “Maybe they’re just fine getting their contracts and being OK with it.”

-New York Post