Rick Brunson has spent the NBA Finals balancing two roles that are impossible to fully separate: Knicks assistant coach and Jalen Brunson 's father.
That became clear after a tense Game 2 moment with De'Aaron Fox went viral. Jalen and Fox got face-to-face after contact near the sideline, and Rick stepped toward the confrontation from the Knicks bench.
It was a father-son moment, but it was also a Finals moment for a Knicks team trying to close in on history.
Rick addressed the reaction by making clear that the family bond did not erase his responsibility to the rest of the roster.
"I'm always gonna be a father first, but at the end of the day, if it were any other player, I'd do the same."
That answer fits the complicated setup. Rick is not just Jalen's father on this staff; he is one of the voices pushing the Knicks through their first NBA Finals run since 1999.
The Brunsons have already made NBA history in this series. Rick played for the Knicks team that reached the 1999 Finals, while Jalen has now led the same franchise back to the stage in 2026.
Jalen has never sounded bothered by the way his father coaches him, even when cameras catch hard conversations.
"Our relationship is unique. People may think that because he pushes me a certain way, we don't say things to each other, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. We have the best relationship. Even when it looks like we're fighting, it's just a coach and a player trying to get to the promised land. I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world."
Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images
That makes them the first father-son duo to each play in the NBA Finals for the same franchise. Rick is now doing it from the bench, helping coach the son he once trained long before Jalen became New York's franchise guard.
Their relationship has always looked intense from the outside. Inside the Knicks, it is part of the daily standard that helped shape Jalen's toughness.
No father-son duo has been found to have won an NBA title together on the same team as coach or assistant coach and player. If the Knicks finish the job, Rick and Jalen would add something even rarer to a Finals run already built around family and pressure.
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