The New York Knicks were officially credited with nine steals in the box score of Friday's 139-122 victory over the Phoenix Suns. They added one more after the final buzzer sounded.
Members of the Knicks made off with the game ball used in Friday's win, which featured a historic 50-point outing from Jalen Brunson. The ball now serves as an artifact from one of the most dominant offensive games in Knicks and NBA history, one that saw Brunson shoot 17-of-23 from the field including 9-of-9 from three-point range (tying an NBA record for most tries without a miss).
Knicks star Julius Randle wasn't letting the Knicks leave without a literal piece of history: one of the enduring images of Friday's game will likely be the two-time All-Star palming the ball at mid-court of Footprint Center's hardwood before handing it off to Brunson.
Roundball wrangling took center stage in the NBA this week after Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo furiously demanded custody of the ball he used to score 64 points in a Wednesday victory over the Indiana Pacers. The visiting Pacers claimed to have wanted to save for their own purposes, as rookie Oscar Tshiebwe had scored his first professional point that night.
“To be completely honest, I’ve never cared about it,” Randle said, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “Now I do."
"Everybody knows what happened with Giannis,” RJ Barrett added in the same report. “(Brunson) had 50, so we had to give it to him.”
Randle wasn't taking any chances with Brunson's magic orb: even though the Knicks held the final possession and were able to run the clock out, Randle committed a bit of friendly fire, swiping the ball away from Ryan Arcidiacono, part of the New York reserve contingent called upon to finish the game.
“I don’t trust Ryan with the game ball,” Randle said. “They might look at him and think, ‘We can take that.’ I had to make sure I got it, and I secured it.”
There's no doubt that Arcidiacono would've done his utmost to secure the ball, especially considering he's one of Brunson's closest friends and a fellow former Villanova Wildcat. But the more physically imposing Randle (standing at 6-8, 250 lbs. compared to Arcidiacono at 6-3, 195) might've given any Arizonan second thoughts about taking the ball back.
As for the ball's final resting place, Brunson will get to hold onto it ... Rick Brunson, that is.
Jalen Brunson has never been one to dwell on the past. His amateur accolades, including his pair of NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship rings from Villanova, sit in his parents' house. The elder Brunson, Rick, currently serves as a Knicks assistant coach and received the ball shortly after it made its way to his son.
"I don’t have any championship rings at the house from college, I don’t have my [high school] state rings. l don’t have anything, the National Player of the Year awards, all that stuff,” Brunson said in October, per Zach Braziller of The Post. “That stuff’s at my parents' house because I don’t want to reflect on that. I don’t want to look at that stuff every day, because it’s not going to help me going forward. I’ve got to focus on how I can be better the next day."
Randle's final assist was far from his only contribution of the night, as he was the Knicks' second-leading scorer behind Brunson with 23 while Barrett put in 21. Two points in the final period from Randle permanently placed momentum in the Knicks' corner.
Just before the midway mark of the frame, Brunson got loose for a fastbreak after swiping the ball in question from Jusuf Nurkic. Though there was no resistance in front of him, Brunson (who had not secured his career-best by that point) instead passed to a streaking Randle. The result uncontested jam put the Knicks (14-10) ahead by 10 en route to a final fourth quarter margin of 42-23 in their favor.
Fans won't have to wait long to see what Brunson can do for an encore: the Knicks return to action on Saturday night when they face the Los Angeles Clippers (10:30 p.m. ET, MSG).
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