On Friday night, Josh Hart sat on stage at Madison Square Garden for The Roommates Show. While he avoided saying a name, he did say, “I know they have media availability. So, we’ll be waiting for that apology.” The crowd at Infosys Theater filled in the blanks immediately, chanting the name of the Las Vegas Aces head coach, Becky Hammon.

The head coach spent three years insisting that Jalen Brunson was too small to lead a championship team. But throughout their postseason run, the New York Knicks showed that no lead is too long and no point guard is too short. Of course, Brunson catalysed the winning run, proving history wrong. But on Tuesday, Becky Hammon confirmed that an apology is not coming.

“Jalen, all he did was prove history wrong, he proves he’s an outlier,” she told the New York Post’s Madeline Kenney. “So you can put his name next to Steph Curry and Isiah Thomas, and I thought he played brilliantly, especially down the stretch.

“I mean, he was that 1A dude. But apologize? I’m never gonna apologize for having an opinion. That’s what ESPN pays me for.”

In December 2023, appearing on NBA Today, Hammon said the Knicks lacked a “1A dude.” When Kendrick Perkins told her that they do have that “1A dude” in Jalen Brunson, she had a rather blunt take: 

“If your best player is small, you’re not winning,” she said.

Before she helped the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces win three championship titles, she was an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs for seven years. So, you can say she knew her stuff. She cited John Stockton, Allen Iverson, and Steve Nash — a list of elite smaller guards who never won a title — and named Curry as the only exception, placing him in a separate category. Her comments drew immediate pushback, but she stood by what she said.

“I’m speaking historically on the NBA with what I said,” Hammon said in May. “I don’t know why everybody’s so stuck on that. I said it two years ago; I stand by it. There’s no air to be cleared. I said what I said. (If) he proves me wrong, he proves me wrong. Good for him.”

Hammon was not wrong about history. Only four players listed at 6’2” or shorter have ever won Finals MVP since the award was introduced in 1969. But she was wrong about Brunson, who joins that list as the fourth such player, and she said so herself:

“He proves he’s an outlier.”

Mikal Bridges, who won back-to-back national championships with Jalen Brunson at Villanova before winning an NBA title alongside him in New York, revealed during a livestream this week how deep Hammon’s comments had cut.

“I appreciate Becky, no cap,” Bridges said. “The words she said about ‘Can’t win with JB being a 1A.’ All that did is fuel that.”

Furthermore, he then made the point that Hart’s crowd wanted: “Becky the GOAT. She motivated that bro.”

Jalen Brunson’s Response to Becky Hammon

Brunson had every chance to call out Becky Hammon and loathe, but instead chose peace.

“I didn’t respond to them then, I’m damn sure not gonna respond to them now.”

The closest he came to addressing doubters was during the Knicks’ championship celebration, where he delivered a message that many interpreted as his answer to Hammon and other critics:

“When you prove them wrong, you don’t have to say s— to them. They don’t deserve it.”

Brunson led the Knicks past the San Antonio Spurs in five games and was named Finals MVP. His defining moment came in Game 5, when he scored 45 points in the title-clinching 94-90 victory. The performance set a Knicks Finals record and capped one of the most memorable championship runs in franchise history.

According to NBA.com, JB scored 29 of his 45 points in the second half and 15 in the fourth quarter alone. With the Knicks trailing by ten points late in the game, he personally fueled the comeback, as he scored the team’s next ten points to erase the deficit.