It should surprise no one that Jalen Brunson came to “Saturday Night Live” as part of a package deal.
The New York Knicks star took the stage as “Saturday Night Live” host this weekend, the natural result of his team’s NBA championship in June. He is only the fifth NBA player to host SNL, joining LeBron James (2007), Michael Jordan (1991), Bill Russell (1979) and Charles Barkley (1993, 2010, 2012, 2018).
He got started with a joke about his team’s penchant for fourth-quarter comebacks (while breaking along the way):
“Tonight, I’m going to approach hosting the same way I approached the Knicks’ Finals games. So the first three quarters of the show are going to be god-awful. The last sketch, going to be amazing.”
Then came a crack about Madison Square Garden hosting the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding and a quick discussion with Kenan Thompson as Stephen A. Smith.
At that point, Brunson said he would start taking audience questions and the plan for the rest of the segment became clear when the camera showed the rest of the Knicks’ starting five in the audience: Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart.
The group got another big cheer from the New York audience.
The highlight exchange, about the highlight of Game 4.
Anunoby: “Remember in Game 4, when you took that shot in the end and you missed it?”
Brunson: “Yeah.”
Anunoby: “Do you remember what happened after?”
Brunson: “Yeah. You tipped it in.”
Anunoby: “Oh yeah. That was awesome.”
The real victim of the monologue was Hart, who was forced to answer for his infamous missed layup in Game 3 (“AI be looking so real”) and whatever the heck this was (“because it was funny”).
Executions varied but it was all a natural fit into the Knicks’ victory tour, which is in its 15th week and still going strong with the NBA preseason less than two weeks away.
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