Shaquille O'Neal has conceded that Charles Barkley's loud Jalen Brunson take looks a lot less extreme after a Knicks championship.
Brunson did not just justify New York's 2022 gamble.
He turned it into a franchise-changing move, then added the Finals MVP that made the debate impossible to dismiss.
Barkley's free agency argument was clear before the Finals, because he said Brunson delivering a Knicks title would make him the greatest signing ever.
"If Brunson is able to deliver a championship to New York, it'll be the greatest free agency signing ever," Barkley said. "I said that a couple of years ago, and people said, 'What about LeBron ? I said don't compare him to LeBron or KD. But nobody, even the Knicks, thought Brunson was going to be this great."
O'Neal then moved toward Barkley's side after Brunson finished the job.
"Charles, I owe you an apology. You've been saying for the past two years that Brunson has been the best free agency signing ever. Now, it is. Now it becomes that. What he has done, we knew he was good, I never knew he was this good. He woke up this morning saying, 'I gotta go get this.' I'm gonna get this MVP and this championship."
The all-time free-agent conversation still has giants. LeBron James to Miami brought two titles and four Finals trips, Kevin Durant to Golden State created a near-unstoppable team, and Shaq's move to the Lakers became the base of a three-peat.
Brunson's case is different because the Knicks did not sign a finished all-time player. They paid four years and $104 million for a guard many viewed as overpaid at more than $25 million per year, then watched him become the franchise's modern standard.
His later extension made the story even stronger. Brunson passed on a possible richer future deal to sign a team-friendly four-year, $156.5 million extension, a decision widely framed as saving the Knicks more than $100 million in flexibility.
Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
That helped New York keep building around him, and the payoff was immediate. Brunson won Finals MVP after averaging 32.6 points in the series and scoring 45 in Game 5 to beat the Spurs 94-90.
For the NBA, Brunson has earned a place in the broader conversation. For the Knicks, Barkley and Shaq are right: this is already the greatest free-agent signing the franchise has ever made.
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