Jalen Brunson
Jalen Brunson

NEW YORK — New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson hosted the season 52 premiere of "Saturday Night Live," capping his championship run with the franchise's Finals MVP trophy by bringing his entire starting lineup on stage during the monologue, a moment never before seen in the show's history.

Brunson's path to hosting the show began taking shape as soon as the NBA Finals concluded in June, when he won Finals MVP en route to the Knicks' third championship and their first since 1973, two years before "Saturday Night Live" itself first premiered. The season premiere marked the earliest start to an "SNL" season since 2012, a scheduling decision necessary to give Brunson a full week to prepare for hosting duties before reporting to Knicks training camp.

Brunson joined a short list of active NBA players to host the show, following Michael Jordan, who hosted as reigning Finals MVP in 1991, Charles Barkley, who hosted as reigning MVP in 1993, and LeBron James, who hosted in 2007. Barkley later hosted three additional times following his retirement, and Bill Russell hosted once in 1979, a decade after his own playing career ended. According to The Athletic's Law Murray, the scheduling accommodation made for Brunson reflected a New York sports achievement no Knicks player had previously gotten to celebrate on the show.

The highlight of Brunson's night came during his opening monologue, when he took questions from four audience members who turned out to be his own teammates from the Knicks' championship starting lineup: Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart. During the bit, Towns learned he could not foul out of an "SNL" episode, while Bridges joked about his long wingspan not allowing him to fly. Anunoby, channeling comedian Chris Farley's energy, marveled at scoring a game-winning putback following a missed Brunson shot during Game 4 of the Finals. Brunson had particular fun at Hart's expense, needling him for grabbing Brunson from behind during the Knicks' championship celebration, while also showing a clip of Hart missing a layup during Game 4, leaving Hart to jokingly blame the miss on artificial intelligence. Brunson then invited all four teammates onto the stage to close out the monologue, producing an image The Athletic described as unprecedented in the show's history: a full starting lineup of defending NBA champions sharing the Studio 8H stage together.

Brunson set the tone for the night early in his monologue, referencing the Knicks' pattern during the Finals of trailing by double digits before storming back, joking, "The first three quarters of the show are going to be god-awful. The last sketch is going to be amazing." He also referenced Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding at Madison Square Garden, noting Kelce as the last athlete to host "SNL" before Brunson, and appeared in a bit facing off against a repentant version of sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, played by cast member Kenan Thompson.

Beyond the monologue, Brunson took on roles across nine sketches throughout the episode, a notably heavy workload for a first-time host. In one sketch, Brunson played an office worker named Darius struggling to make a trash-can shot with crumpled wrappers, only to convert successfully once he revealed his true identity as Jalen Brunson, prompting his coworkers to erupt in MVP chants. He also appeared in a parody of "The Debut: Dream Academy," the competition series that formed the night's musical guest, Katseye, playing a choreographer perplexed by two of the competition's contestants.

Other sketches saw Brunson play a man dealing with the fallout of his girlfriend being pulled on stage during a Chris Brown and Usher concert, a villainous basketball transfer student in a parody titled "North High" modeled on "High School Musical," an airport customer overly fond of massage chairs, one of two romantic partners attending a tense parent-teacher conference, and Shark Tank investor Daymond John evaluating a pitch for a product called "Respectacles." In a closing locker-room sketch, Brunson played a version of himself avoiding media questions after what was implied to be a new contract extension, fending off a fictional former youth coach and a man falsely claiming to be his father, Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson, in a bit that included a reference to the elder Brunson's baldness.

Murray's review for The Athletic praised Brunson's overall willingness to fully commit to the hosting role rather than simply playing himself throughout the episode, awarding the monologue a grade of B-plus for the unprecedented teammate cameo, while offering more mixed grades across the individual sketches, ranging from a B-minus down to a D-plus for the various comedic bits Brunson appeared in throughout the night. Murray's overall assessment of the episode landed at a C-plus, describing it as a solid, if uneven, way to open the show's new season.

With Brunson's hosting turn now complete, the moment stands as a distinctive marker in both "Saturday Night Live" history and the ongoing celebration of the Knicks' championship run, bringing an entire NBA starting lineup together on one of television's most iconic stages for the first time as the team looks ahead to defending its title in the coming season.