Becky Hammon said Jalen Brunson was too small to win a championship, and then Jalen Brunson won a championship, and now we have paperwork.
December 2023. ESPN. Hammon — not a random hot-taker, but a Hall of Fame WNBA player and longtime Gregg Popovich assistant who spent years building a Spurs dynasty — told Kendrick Perkins that the Knicks couldn’t go all the way because “he too small.” Her exact argument: if your best player is small, you’re not winning. No 1A dude.
That framing matters. Hammon’s credibility is precisely what made the take land so hard. This wasn’t a columnist looking for clicks. It was a basketball lifer invoking prototype logic — the unwritten rulebook that says a 6’2” guard can’t anchor a title run.
She had a chance to revise that logic in May, after the New York Knicks swept Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. A reporter asked her directly. She said: “I stand by it. I said what I said. If he proves me wrong, he proves me wrong.”
He proved her wrong.
June 13, 2026. Brunson scored 45 points in the clincher at San Antonio, shooting 14-for-27, and the Knicks won their first NBA championship in 53 years. He averaged 32.6 points per game across the Finals. When the votes came in, all 11 media members gave him the Finals MVP — unanimous, 11-0. Every single one.
I’ve watched a lot of people get proven wrong in this league. Almost none of them get proven wrong this cleanly.
At the podium, Brunson was asked about the doubters. “I didn’t respond to them then,” he said. “I’m damn sure not gonna respond to them now.”
He didn’t need to. His sister handled it.
https://x.com/eribrunson/status/2066040048546419166
Erica Brunson’s first post: “Now what?” Her follow-up arrived quickly and carried the full weight of two years of restraint: “Unfortunately I’m petty and idc. WHAT. NOW!!! Where will the goal post move now?”
The question lands because the Becky Hammon Jalen Brunson too small critique wasn’t malicious. She wasn’t building a media career on dunking on Brunson. She was applying a prototype framework that basketball has used forever: 6’2” guards don’t win championships. Except Isiah Thomas did. Stephen Curry did. And now Brunson did — with a Hall of Fame coach on record against him and 45 points in the game that sealed it.
The Hammon–Spurs–Brunson geometry is almost too convenient. She built her coaching career under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio before taking over the Las Vegas Aces. The Knicks just beat the Spurs in the Finals. The franchise she helped put on the coaching map is the one Brunson just ran through.
The “Becky Hammon Jalen Brunson too small” moment isn’t about Hammon being a bad analyst. She’s a good one. It’s about what happens when a credible person reinforces a prototype, doubles down when given an exit ramp, and then watches the receipts arrive in prime time. Erica’s right to ask where the goalposts move next. They will move. They always do.
The receipts exist now.
