Jalen Brunson hosted the 52nd-season premiere of Saturday Night Live last night, becoming the fifth NBA player to host the show and doing so three months after winning Finals MVP. That and the big block party last week feel like cherries on top of the championship summer, dovetailing nicely into Media Day tomorrow and training camp next week.
How’d our boy do? Great for a professional athlete! Jalen flubbed a few lines and nearly broke Bill Hader-style during a massage chair sketch, but otherwise
availed himself admirably.
Always a good sport, the captain poked fun at himself in the opening monologue. He said the show would be like a Knicks playoff game: crappy for three quarters with a big rally at the end.
His fellow four starters attended, too, each asking a question of the captain. Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, and OG Anunoby all got choice lines, at least. Josh asked if Jalen really sacrificed $113 million to extend with the Knicks and if any of that cash is still up for grabs. KAT asked if you can foul out of an SNL taping, and since you can’t, he was excited that he could stay for the whole show. And OG got a roar from the appreciative audience when he stood up to ask if Jalen recalled missing that shot at the end of Game Four.
The writers stiffed Mikal Bridges, though. The Savage ‘Kal asked if Jalen thought he had a long wingspan, and his punchline was a mournful, “Yet I will never fly.” C’mon, SNL, you can do better for the NBA’s 61st best player (according to ESPN.com)
Lorne Michaels claims to have 17 members in his cast this season. You’d doubt that after watching last night’s episode, which featured a heavy helping of Ben Marshall, Ashley Padilla, Mikey Day, and Kenan Thompson, who did a funny send-up of that double-talking, alleged Knicks fan, Stephen A. Smith.
Some sketches passed, others were doomed by weak premises. The video sketch of High School Musical with Jalen as the basketball bully was funny, and scored meta-points because Brunson’s an HSM fan. The set-up of fellas at a support meeting for guys whose girlfriends were brought onstage by Usher and Chris Brown was an amusing concept with nowhere to go.
Being old, I didn’t recognize the musical guest. Wikipedia says that KATSEYE won the reality survival show, Dream Academy, and Michaels must have picked them based on Instagram followers. Not my choice for the season premiere of a historical program, but did I mention being old? (KATSEYE? More like Catpiss. Badump.)
As for Jalen, this was one more entry on an already remarkable résumé. His Basketball-Reference entry is plump with accolades and awards; he has won two NCAA championships and one NBA championship (something Patrick, Bernard, nor Melo never did); and he’s hosted SNL—an honor denied to even the fabulous Clyde. (Seriously, how legendary would it have been for Walt Frazier to host SNL in his swingin’ heyday? TV sets would have impregnated viewers nationwide.) For now, and wayyy into the foreseeable future, Jalen Brunson is emblematic of the Knicks, the face that even non-sports fans associate with great New York basketball. There is no better ambassador.
What did you think of the show, P&T family? Comment about it in the talk section below.
Congrats, Cap.
