Long before Jalen Brunson lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy, there were questions about whether a player like him could ever lead a team to a championship. In 2024, ESPN analyst Becky Hammon summed up a belief many around the league shared when discussing the Knicks: “He is too small. If your best player is small, you’re not winning.”

The Knicks spent decades searching for the player who could bring them back to the NBA’s biggest stage. Brunson changed that almost immediately. Four seasons after arriving in New York, the former second-round pick helped deliver the franchise’s first championship since 1973. Along the way, he left roughly $113 million on the table in 2024 to help the organization build a contender around him.

Former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins believes those odds reflect a larger issue surrounding Brunson’s reputation. Appearing on First Take, Perkins argued that the Knicks star still does not receive the respect he has earned despite leading New York to a championship. “You damn right. They should be at the top. I mean, look at their roster. They check all the boxes,” Big Perk said. “It just goes to show me that the world still don’t respect the greatness of big body Brunson.”

Perkins added, “Despite him putting up 30, averaging 32 in the NBA Finals, they don’t respect him. And it’s a damn shame because they still can’t believe that they just witnessed a 6-foot-1, 6-foot-2 guy that plays below the rim tear the league up this entire postseason and had one of the greatest runs in NBA history.”

Perkins’ frustration did not emerge in a vacuum.

ESPN’s First Take displayed DraftKings Sportsbook’s early odds for the 2026-27 NBA title race. The San Antonio Spurs hold the best odds at +250 to win the title, with the Oklahoma City Thunder close behind at +260. The Boston Celtics sit third with +550 odds, while the reigning champion New York Knicks are fourth at +650. The graphic clearly enraged Kendrick Perkins.

To be fair, the sportsbooks are not operating without logic. The Thunder remain one of the league’s youngest contenders around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, while Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs have rapidly emerged as a championship favorite. Boston’s placement is also understandable given Jayson Tatum’s expected return and the franchise’s recent championship pedigree.

The bigger question is whether a defending champion should open fourth after a Finals run that featured one of the most productive postseason performances by a point guard in recent memory.

History offers support for both sides of the debate. No team has repeated as NBA champion since the Golden State Warriors in 2018, making skepticism around defending champions understandable. At the same time, Brunson’s Knicks are not a typical champion coming off a lucky run. They return much of their core and are coming off the franchise’s first title since 1973.

That is why Perkins believes the conversation has become less about New York and more about Brunson himself.

Jalen Brunson & the Knicks deserve more respect

Brunson’s impact on the franchise extends far beyond his scoring. In July 2024, the Knicks star voluntarily left roughly $113 million on the table by signing a four-year, $156.5 million extension instead of waiting for a significantly larger payday. The decision gave New York flexibility to strengthen its roster, eventually helping facilitate the arrivals of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges.

Just as importantly, Brunson transformed one of the NBA’s most unstable franchises into a perennial contender. Before his arrival, the Knicks had won just one playoff series across the previous two decades. Four seasons later, they are NBA champions.

The championship run itself strengthened Perkins’ argument. Brunson averaged 28.4 points and 6.1 assists throughout the postseason before elevating his game even further in the Finals. Against San Antonio, he averaged 32.6 points, 4.6 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.0 steals while earning Finals MVP honors.

His defining moment arrived in the title-clinching Game 5, when he exploded for 45 points on the road. The performance set a Knicks Finals scoring record and tied Michael Jordan for the most points scored in a championship-clinching road game.

Whether the Knicks deserve to be championship favorites is a debate that will continue throughout the offseason. What is harder to argue against is Brunson’s résumé. The former second-round pick has gone from being labeled too small and not good enough to leading New York to its first championship in more than half a century. If Perkins is right about one thing, it is that Brunson’s résumé now demands a different conversation than the one that followed him into the league eight years ago.