WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The captain of the Yankees needs he might see extra of the captain of the Knicks, however he has been impressed with what he has seen.
Aside from Video games 3 and 6 of the primary spherical of the NBA playoffs — which have been each in Detroit — every Knicks playoff sport has coincided with a Yankees sport.
The Yankees have been taking part in once more Saturday on the opposite facet of the nation because the Knicks hosted Recreation 3 of the second spherical towards the Celtics on the Backyard, the place they suffered a lopsided 115-93 loss.
“It’s been tough to catch a game,” Decide mentioned earlier than Saturday’s 11-7 loss to the A’s at Sutter Well being Park. “However I’ve been seeing the highlights, seeing what they’re doing.
It’s spectacular, particularly going up towards Boston. They simply received it, the previous champs.
“And for [the Knicks] to have a two-game lead, it’s pretty impressive. They’ve been up. They’ve been down big. Come back with some great clutch plays at the end on the offensive side and defensive side. I wish we could catch a game.”
Decide met Jalen Brunson final 12 months when Brunson threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a sport in The Bronx.
Arguably the 2 hottest athletes in New York talked on the sector for a number of minutes, not sufficient time to really get to know one another however sufficient time for Brunson to make an impression.
“Seems like a great guy,” mentioned Decide, who himself was a highschool basketball star in Northern California. “He additionally had his entire household there, which I believe speaks volumes about the kind of particular person he’s. He’s a household man.
“He was just cool, calm and collected on the field, which is kind of how he is out there on the basketball court.”
In some methods, Decide and Brunson are comparable as gamers who established themselves as standouts earlier than pushing themselves to a special echelon.
Decide — an All-Star and Rookie of the 12 months in his second style of the majors — basically has eradicated any weak spot from his sport through the years and now could be higher in contrast with the legends from the previous than his personal contemporaries.
The celebrity, who hit two residence runs in Saturday’s loss, enters Sunday with the slash line triple crown, main the majors in common (.396), on-base share (.486) and slugging share (.772).
His 14 residence runs and 37 RBIs are tops, too, as he tries to outdo his historic, 62 residence runs in 2022 and an much more spectacular 2024, which he completed with a 1.159 OPS.
Brunson was a complementary participant with the Mavericks, a second-round pick of Villanova who labored his manner from a bench piece to grow to be Luka Doncic’s wing man.
He then signed with the Knicks in 2022 and unlocked a brand new degree of stardom.
This 12 months, a former second banana has carried a previously woebegone franchise previous the Pistons and has threatened to do the unthinkable in knocking off the Celtics.
The Clutch Participant of the 12 months lifted the Knicks again from 20-point deficits in Video games 1 and a pair of, with Brunson’s free throws placing his staff excessive within the second sport.
Coming into Saturday’s Recreation 3 — at which senior Yankees adviser Omar Minaya sat courtside — Brunson was averaging 29.4 factors and seven.6 assists in eight playoff video games.
“He’s a quiet assassin,” Decide mentioned of Brunson, who scored 27 factors however struggled within the Knicks’ Recreation 3 loss. “He goes out there, does his job. … It’s pretty impressive to see and fun to watch, especially in New York.”
