Jalen Brunson’s championship celebration has carried him from Madison Square Garden to the late-night couch — and straight into a conversation about Justin Bieber.
Days after the New York Knicks captured the title, the point guard stopped by The Tonight Show, where host Jimmy Fallon wasted little time digging into one of the stranger corners of his pre-game routine.
The subject was a long-running devotion to Justin Bieber — one that, by Brunson’s own admission, is still very much alive right up until the second he runs out onto the court. Teammate Karl-Anthony Towns, sitting alongside him, was happy to back up the story.
Jalen Brunson and Justin Bieber: an unlikely pre-game pairing
The exchange, shared by The Tonight Show, picked up where an earlier visit had left off. Fallon recalled that Brunson had mentioned the habit once before, and wanted to know whether the playoffs had changed anything.
Fallon said: “We talked when you were on the show — before the game you told me you listen to Justin Bieber, and I was wondering if that’s still the case. In the playoffs, do you switch up the playlist, or is it still Bieber?”
Brunson conceded that his picks vary, but insisted one part of the ritual never moves.
The guard said: “Before the games I switch it up every now and then, but right after Mike does his pre-game talk, it has to be Bieber right before I run out.”
That last detail — a nod to head coach Mike Brown — drew an instant co-sign from Towns, who chimed in to settle any doubt, saying: “I can verify that.”
Bieber might not be the soundtrack most people would script for a player about to step into a postseason cauldron, yet it’s hard to argue with the results.
The celebrations across New York have since reached gleeful extremes, with one city commission even joking about renaming a local district in Brunson’s honor. However unconventional the playlist, the formula clearly worked when it mattered most.
