SAN ANTONIO — Defending champs. The New York Knicks spent the first day of the rest of their lives wearing that designation like a fancy new suit.It takes some getting used to, but it sure looks good in the mirror.The first time Jalen Brunson is asked about being the NBA’s defending champ entering the 2026-27 season, expect him to say what stoic, coach-speaking leaders are wired to say.We are defending nothing. This year will be a journey independent of last year’s. Or something like that.Every scoreboard hanging above every possession in every game reads “0-0” in Brunson’s mind, because every play has to be treated with the utmost respect and care, regardless of circumstances. Playing the game that way is exactly how a 6-foot-2 guard makes a 7-foot-4 center nicknamed “The Alien” look human and downright small.It’s how Brunson (6-4 wingspan) beat Victor Wembanyama (8-foot wingspan) by shooting over him from deep. It’s how he scored under him in the paint, leading the Knicks past the San Antonio Spurs to the franchise’s first title since 1973.Brunson should have his own statue outside Madison Square Garden ASAP. In fact, there should be a second statue for the team official who authorized the illegal tampering operation that ended with the former Dallas Maverick signing his $104 million deal in 2022.The Knicks lost a 2025 second-round pick as punishment, meaning that team official executed the most lopsided trade on record — a second-rounder for the second-rounder who needed a mere four seasons to become arguably the all-time greatest Knick — with plenty of prime years to come to enhance his legacy. Brunson hasn’t turned 30 yet. He is not planning to go one-and-done simply because he dropped 45 Game 5 points on the Spurs to clinch his NBA Finals MVP award, or because the Knicks broke postseason records while ending their drought.Now that he has silenced the skeptics and critics, Brunson will hunt for more doubters and haters to use as extra sources of motivation. If he has to create them, he will. It doesn’t matter if the slights are real or imagined. Brunson will use them to prove people wrong all over again as he tries to join Walt Frazier and Willis Reed in the Knicks’ two-title club.“What are they going to say now?” his father, Knicks assistant Rick Brunson, asked in the Frost Bank Center tunnel Saturday night after his son became a legend before his dad’s very eyes.They are going to say that everything broke right for the Knicks with their postseason matchups, and that New York shouldn’t hold its breath waiting for a second ticker-tape parade.Brunson knows the deal. Now that he has one ring, they’ll say he has no shot at two. Or he’ll convince himself that they’re saying that.And that will be the rocket fuel propelling Brunson on his next drive for a title. He joined Steph Curry and Isiah Thomas on the painfully short list of small guards who served as lead superstars on championship teams. Thomas won twice with the Detroit Pistons, and Curry won two of his four titles without Kevin Durant on the Golden State Warriors. Don’t be surprised if Brunson joins them on the list of multiple winners.Jalen Brunson drives to the basket against Victor Wembanyama during the fourth quarter in Game 5. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)Like Eli Manning before him, Brunson has made himself a student of Derek Jeter’s career, his Yankees captaincy, and his disposition in the public arena. It was clear even in his first New York season that Brunson had some Jeter in him — the drive, the consistency in performance and personality, and the daily urgency to be great. Brunson isn’t matching Jeter’s five rings, but after transitioning from his own Buck Showalter (Tom Thibodeau) to his own Joe Torre (Mike Brown), let’s see how far he can take this.During Brunson’s 2022-23 season, even Knicks wing Josh Hart, his old friend and Villanova teammate, confessed the following: “I knew (Jalen) would have a long career in the NBA, but I didn’t think it was gonna be how he’s playing now.”Nobody did, not even Rick Brunson, who called his son’s ascension to superstardom “crazy.” The father and assistant coach said he never expected Jalen to reach these heights. “I’d be lying to you if I thought he’d be this good,” he said in that tunnel. “I just wanted someone to come to New York, run a team and hopefully have a chance to win a championship.”Out on the court, after Patrick Ewing said he was blessed to watch Jalen Brunson “put us on his back,” Frazier agreed with Rick Brunson’s assessment of Jalen at the time he signed with the Knicks.“When we first acquired him, I would’ve been happy with 20 points and six assists, because they talk about his height and having no speed,” Frazier said. “I thought in a playoff situation, opponents would put taller guys on Jalen and he would have trouble.“But he found a way. In every series, he found a way. The Spurs have excellent defenders on the perimeter, and they were frustrated and devastated by Brunson. It’s a testament to his sagacity. His game is right between the ears.”He dominated the mind game with Wemby, who didn’t know if he was coming or going by the time Brunson was through with him. It was fitting that the captain had to topple a giant in the end, as Wemby, physically, is everything the Knicks’ best player is not.Now Brunson belongs to an exclusive circle of lionized New York winners. His membership is certified by the fact that Brunson passed on an additional $113 million in guaranteed cash so that the Knicks would have the money to spend on the talent required for what was accomplished in Game 5.But no matter who was brought in to fill out the cast, there was never any question about the identity of the leading man. Brunson was wearing large goggles (to protect his eyes from sprayed champagne) over a championship cap when asked Saturday night for his message to those who said he “wasn’t a 1-A guy.” He replied, “I didn’t respond to them then. I’m damn sure not going to respond to them now.”Brunson dropped the mic and exited stage left. The following day, his first as defending champ, oddsmakers installed Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Boston as better bets than the Knicks to raise the trophy next year. It’s possible that Brunson’s team won’t be the odds-on favorite to win a second ring for the balance of the captain’s prime.So be it. Brunson wasn’t supposed to claim two national titles in three years at Villanova, either, but of course he did. He wasn’t supposed to play like a top-of-the-lottery draft pick, but of course he has for much of his NBA career.Even Jalen’s father and his teammates had their doubts along the way. Even Leon Rose, the team president who signed him four years ago, could not have envisioned that Brunson, a longtime family friend, would turn into this kind of juggernaut.But he did. The guard who was undervalued in the draft, undervalued in Dallas and undervalued in free agency just starred in perhaps the greatest postseason show the NBA has ever seen.Given Brunson’s track record, what makes anyone think he couldn’t do it again?