Why Jalen Brunson thinks it's 'good' that Knicks lost season opener to 76ers

The New York Knicks opened the 2026-27 season by celebrating their first NBA title in 53 years and raising a championship banner in front of a hyped Madison Square Garden crowd. 

Most members of that crowd later left the arena disappointed after the Knicks suffered a 106-100 loss to a new-look Philadelphia 76ers side that featured LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. 

Following the Knicks' defeat, team captain and 2026 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Jalen Brunson suggested he and his teammates can take positives from the game's outcome. 

Jalen Brunson: 76ers put Knicks' "egos in check" on opening night

"I think it's good for us to get knocked down off the mountain, humble ourselves, put our egos in check," Brunson explained, per Vincent Goodwill of ESPN. "I've told you guys since day one, whatever happens the first couple of weeks of the season, I'm not sure that's who we really are."

As Julia Yohe of SNY shared, Knicks head coach Mike Brown said after the loss that he felt his side "looked like we were running in mud" throughout the game, particularly after halftime. The 76ers scored 22 points off of 15 New York turnovers on Tuesday, and the Knicks never fully recovered from Philadelphia closing the third quarter with an 11-0 run. 

As for Brunson, the hero of the Knicks' championship journey shot just 6-of-19 from the field and finished the evening with 21 points, five rebounds and three assists. He was 1-for-5 in the fourth quarter, and his miss of an ugly-looking forced three-pointer with 11 seconds remaining helped ensure that the visitors would leave the Garden with the victory. 

Mike Brown glad Jalen Brunson couldn't cover the Knicks' "fire" on opening night

"If Jalen Brunson hits those shots down the stretch and we win, for me personally as their coach, there's going to be something inside of me that wished it wouldn't happen," Brown added during his postgame comments. "It's almost like you're playing with fire and you ended up winning that time without any water or one of them fire blankets to cover the fire."

The Knicks will next hit the road to play at the 0-1 Boston Celtics on Friday evening. Boston suffered a 121-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday. 

"We play basketball for a living," New York's Josh Hart said after Tuesday's loss, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. "If you can’t get up and get excited to play basketball, no matter who the hell we play, you got to do some soul-searching. It doesn’t matter if we’re defending champs. It doesn’t matter if we have the worst record in the league last year. No matter what, we got to make sure we are professionals and do what our job is, and at the end of the day, I don’t think anybody picked us to win the championship again. So nothing to it. We shouldn’t sit there and think we’re the champions because we’re not. We’re 0-1. We’re the worst team in the NBA right now. So we need to play like it."