Jalen Brunson on showing respect, hard lessons from dad and not losing his cool

Jalen and Rick Brunson's emotional, joyous embrace on Saturday night after the New York Knicks clinched their first NBA Championship in 53 years was about so much more than basketball. But his dad was actually the second person Jalen acknowledged after the win. "I hugged Coach (Mitch) Johnson from the Spurs first, just to show respect," Brunson told "CBS Mornings" on Wednesday. "It was just kind of instinct, like it's kind of how I was raised," Brunson said. "I think win or loss, you always gotta show respect regardless of the outcome, and I got a lot of respect for them over there," he added, referring to San Antonio, who, despite losing in the Finals 4-1, finished the regular season with the second-best record in the NBA. "And once I saw him, it was emotional from that point on," Jalen said of his father. "It was a crazy moment." Rick has been an assistant coach for the Knicks since 2022, one month before Jalen joined the team. But he was also a member of their 1999 Eastern Conference championship team as a player. Some of the emotion comes from thinking about "the beginning," Jalen said. "Everyone sees the videos of me and him in the park, and like, yelling at me, getting on me, but no one saw the conversations after the fact or before, saying, you know, 'Is this what you want to do for a living?'" "And the answer was always yes," he said. …