As I’ve written before, you can make a pretty strong argument that Jalen Brunson , only three years into his Knicks career, is the most universally beloved New York City athlete of the last 25 years. That may be true because of a slight technicality: Though the city has split loyalties in baseball, football, and hockey, we are decades away, at best, of the Nets ever creating such a reality in the NBA. But Brunson’s status speaks to both the Knicks’ history of futility and to the importance of his arrival on the New York stage. He is the best hope the Knicks have had for a title, which is the biggest thing that could possibly happen in New York sports, and maybe all of sports, right now. He’s everything.

Which is why it was so strange how often, during the Knicks’ game-four loss to the

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