New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Jalen Brunson misses out on unanimous NBA Cup MVP by one voter

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Darryn Albert | Last updated Dec 16, 2025 11:48 PM ET

Jalen Brunson now has his own Fred Hickman.

The New York Knicks star Brunson helped lead his team to victory in Tuesday’s NBA Cup final against the San Antonio Spurs. Brunson finished with 25 points on 11-of-27 shooting to go along with four rebounds and eight assists as the Knicks won at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. by a 124-113 final score.

As a result of the victory, Brunson ended up taking home the NBA Cup MVP Award. Brunson earned 19 total votes for the award … but was unable to win unanimously because one voter had cast his ballot for Knicks forward OG Anunoby instead.

That voter was Steve McGehee of News 9 in Oklahoma. Here are the full voting results.

The voting results, leading to Jalen Brunson almost unanimously winning the NBA Cup MVP award. pic.twitter.com/vmCYWYPsoT
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) December 17, 2025

Anunoby actually outscored Brunson and was more efficient in doing so as well, finishing Tuesday’s final with a game-high 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting. But the NBA Cup MVP Award weighed performance in all seven NBA Cup games that the Knicks played this season (including during the group stage). That swung the needle in Brunson’s favor for 19 of 20 voters.

A unanimous award win isn’t worth much more than a regular award win besides the bragging rights and the future trivia questions. As such, the tournament MVP win was a very nice bow on top for the two-time All-Star Brunson, who had some very animated moments over the course of NBA Cup play this season.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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