Jalen Brunson Credits Celtics Champion for Sparking Fire That Fueled Knicks’ Title Run

Kendrick Perkins won a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008. He spent years afterward building a broadcasting career on sharp, sometimes brutal player evaluations. He has rarely been shy about criticism. So when he coined a nickname for Jalen Brunson, few expected it to become one of the defining storylines of a championship run, or that the player himself would credit it as fuel rather than an insult.

Speaking on the Road Trippin Show, Jalen Brunson opened up about “Big Body Brunson.” The nickname Perkins gave him. 

“Honestly, if it was anyone other than Perk, I would talk about it,” Brunson said via NBA Courtside. “But I’ll say this — Perk has been one of the guys who always kind of… don’t want to say, but no. Actually lit a fire under me."

"He’s always boosted me up," he added. "He’s always giving constructive criticism, our team constructive criticism. So I don’t know, he’s good in my book — whatever he says, I’m cool with it.”

The relationship between the two goes well beyond a nickname. Perkins has been one of Brunson’s most consistent public defenders since Brunson’s earliest seasons in New York. He famously sparred with Becky Hammon in 2023 after she declared the Knicks lacked a legitimate “1A” star and that Brunson was too small to be that guy.

“They do have that dude,” Perkins fired back at the time. “Jalen Brunson.”

That exchange, which aired on ESPN's NBA Today in December 2023, has since become one of the most revisited clips of the entire championship cycle. Hammon's precise words: "He too small. If your best player is small, you're not winning. Steph Curry is the only dude," were repeated back across sports media every time the Knicks advanced another round.

After New York swept the Cleveland Cavaliers to reach the NBA Finals, Hammon was asked whether she wanted to walk back her comments. She didn't blink.

"I speak from experience. I think the two best teams are probably in the West, but I'm up for being proven wrong," she said. Only after Brunson won the title did she fully relent, telling reporters at a Las Vegas Aces shootaround: "I was wrong. Jalen, all he did was prove history wrong. He proves he's an outlier — you can put his name next to Steph Curry and Isiah Thomas."

Brunson, for his part, never addressed Hammon directly. But Mikal Bridges confirmed what those around the team had suspected all along:

"The words she said about can't win with JB being 1A, and he's too little — all that did was fuel him."

That defence, delivered years before any championship, is what referenced when he said that Perkins has always “boosted him up.” The nickname itself has become inseparable from the identity Brunson built his championship run around.

Robert Horry compared Brunson’s game to Tim Hardaway. He noted the same wide-bodied frame and shoulder-first drives define both players’ scoring styles.

After the Knicks' Game 5 clincher over the Spurs to capture the 2026 NBA title, Perkins did not hold back on SportsCenter.

"This man has become the greatest Knick of all time. Yes, I said it," he declared, placing Brunson ahead of Patrick Ewing and Willis Reed in franchise history. He went further still.

"He will never spend another dime on another meal, another drink. I don't know if he's even gonna have to pay his mortgage in the city of New York. This is Mr. New York. He is the new Derek Jeter of this generation," Perkins said.

Why Perkins’ Voice Carries Different Weight in the Brunson Debate

Throughout his career, Brunson has faced skepticism rooted almost entirely in his size. The Hammon comments were one example among many of analysts questioning whether a 6'2" guard could ever be the unquestioned engine of a championship team.

Even Walt Frazier - the franchise's iconic broadcast voice and its most decorated player had weighed in before the title was won, telling The Athletic:

"He's got the tenacity of Willis Reed and he's got my cool." For a player still trying to prove himself worthy of that company, the endorsement carried real weight.

Perkins was different from the start. Constructive criticism delivered by someone who had already staked his reputation on believing in Brunson before the results arrived.

The championship validated it all. Brunson was named NBA Finals MVP after his performance in the series-clinching Game 5, a stunning individual effort that Perkins immediately used as the final piece of evidence in his season-long argument.