New York Knicks Stefan Bondy Jalen Brunson is being exposed — and it could be on Knicks to save him By Stefan Bondy Published April 21, 2026, 7:22 p.m. ET Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks loses the ball against Onyeka Okongwu #17 of the Atlanta Hawks during game two of the Eastern Conference first round NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Getty Images Knicks fans should know better than to needle a journalist. CJ McCollum, a journalism major at Lehigh before his rise to fringe NBA stardom, is the only Hawks player the Garden faithful shouldn’t taunt. If you haven’t figured it out by now, he enjoys it. He’s unfazed. Sort of like the point guard the Hawks traded to acquire him — Trae Young.
Jalen Johnson? He’d probably wilt. Same with Onyeka Okongwu or Dyson Daniels. They’ll be better at home, at State Farm Arena. But McCollum has been here before with the Blazers — check out the 37 points in his 2019 Game 7 against the Nuggets — and he did it again Monday night at the Garden, killing New York with the crunch-time poise of a beat reporter on deadline.
All self-promotion aside, it was a powerful performance Monday from McCollum as the fans attached his name to chanted obscenities. And as it unfolded, there was one very clear problem with the Knicks defense: Jalen Brunson.
CJ McCollum drives past Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in the first half of Game 2. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post “What do you think?” McCollum asked a reporter when asked if he both hunted and liked the matchup against Brunson.
