O Captain! My Captain!

While he will formally don the title of "captain" beginning next season, Jalen Brunson earned it long ago.

Two bits of news to report on from KnicksLand over the past couple of days. Let's start with the announcement the organization made yesterday afternoon…  

🏀 Walt Whitman's preeminent poem, "O Captain! My Captain!" was written in 1865 as an elegy to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln's death and the end of the American Civil War. It's arguably Whitman's most well-known (his first poem to be anthologized) and best-loved work. 

The second stanza starts:

"O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,

For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;"

While not quite as lyrical or eloquent as Whitman, Knicks President Leon Rose succinctly described Jalen Brunson in a statement Tuesday when the team officially announced that the beloved point guard had been named the 36th captain of the Knickerbockers. 

"The New York Knicks have a deep and storied history, and today, we are immensely proud to add to that lineage by naming Jalen Brunson as our captain," wrote Rose. "Jalen is a natural-born leader, and I am confident he will continue to represent our organization, fans, city and his teammates with the same heart, grit and class he has displayed each and every day since he came to New York."

Those of you who have subscribed to this newsletter know I've been referring to Brunson as "captain" for quite some time. While he will formally don the title beginning next season, he earned it long ago. As Rose notes, not only is Brunson the New York's most accomplished player, but he's also their unquestioned leader both on and off the floor.

It's often said that a team takes on the personality of its best player, and that's a primary reason why this Knicks squad has been so successful since Brunson arrived in NYC two years ago. 

The protagonist in Whitman's poem is a ship's captain. Over the past 24 months, I've often leaned into the analogy of Brunson as the commander principally responsible for turning around a rudderless franchise, guiding them out of two decades worth of choppy, shark-infested waters, and setting them on a proper, prosperous course.

Rose and company have done a brilliant job rounding out the roster around Brunson, giving him a supremely talented supporting cast. And because Brunson unselfishly sacrificed millions of dollars by signing a team-friendly extension this summer, the Knicks front office will be able to keep this core intact for the foreseeable future. Consequently, this team should remain a legitimate championship contender for quite some time. Yet, while New York's all-world 3-and-D wings and All-NBA power forward are critical to the Knicks' success, this franchise will only go as far as Brunson takes them. When the club encounters rough seas and other seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the point guard will be asked to steer the vessel to safety and, eventually, to the Promised Land. 

Here are the first two lines in Whitman's legendary poem:

"O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won"

🏀 On Monday evening, the Knicks announced they reached an agreement with second-round pick Kevin McCullar Jr. on a two-way contract.

As I detailed last month, McCullar was a solid pick for New York with the 56th overall selection and carries an enticing upside.

Over the first 25 games of Kansas' 2023-24 campaign (they started last season ranked #1 in the country), McCullar averaged 19.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 46% from the field, 34.2% from behind the arc and 80.5% from the free-throw line. At that point, he was frequently projected as a first-round pick. However, McCullar injured his knee in the first half of a game vs. Houston on March 9th. The bone bruise would sideline him for the rest of the season, including the Big 12 and the NCAA tournaments.