Brunson opened up about losing a teammate to a rival, and what a matchup against him will feel like four times a year.
Free agency doesn't slow down just because a team won a championship.
The Knicks spent the summer watching one of the most important players from that title run leave for a rival, and now their star point guard is talking about what that goodbye actually felt like.
Jalen Brunson sat down with the New York Post this week and got honest about losing Mitchell Robinson, who signed with the Boston Celtics in free agency over the summer.
Robinson had been with New York since being drafted in 2018, and he helped power the run that ended with the Knicks winning it all last June.
Now he plays for a team a lot of Knicks fans grew up rooting against, and Brunson separated the business side of the move from how he actually feels about his old teammate.
Brunson Speaks on Robinson's Exit
Brunson said, "Obviously playing for a rival and I know people want every team to hate each other. But there are some people you really care for and that's my guy. I'm happy for him."
That's about as direct as Brunson usually gets in public.
He also admitted the split was hard on him personally, apart from anything about strategy or the roster.
He and Robinson built a real bond over four seasons together in New York.
The two will now meet four times a year as conference rivals instead of teammates, and Brunson said friendship takes a back seat on those nights.
Replacing a Piece of the Rotation
Robinson agreed to a three year deal with Boston worth $47.4 million, and the move became official in early July.
New York didn't wait around.
The team signed center Andre Drummond to a one year deal after he left Philadelphia, giving Brunson another big body up front for the new season.
It isn't a straight swap for what Robinson gave on the glass and on defense, but it shows the front office moved fast, and Josh Hart already believes the Knicks are still the team to beat in the East no matter who else moved.
A Champion Still Chasing More
None of this changes what Brunson and this group already built.
New York beat San Antonio in five games last June to win the franchise's first championship since 1973, and Brunson walked away with Finals MVP honors after averaging 32.6 points a game in that series.
He followed it with 26 points and 6.8 assists a game across the full 2025-26 regular season, numbers that put him with the best guards in the league, even on a roster where a few key players still have something to prove after winning it all.
Training camp opens September 29, and Brunson will do this all again with a different group around him.
Losing Robinson stings, and it leaves real questions about who protects the rim the way he did.
But this roster already handled adversity on the way to a title, and even Boston's own fanbase has doubts about closing the gap.
Brunson's comments this week suggest a team that made peace with saying goodbye to one of its own, and still believes it can win another one.
