Brunson Brings Knicks Teammates to SNL Season Premiere

Jalen Brunson hosted the season 52 premiere of Saturday Night Live, opening the broadcast with a monologue that brought four New York Knicks teammates onstage for a comic question-and-answer exchange. Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby took turns teasing the Knicks captain, who then invited them to join him onstage. The teammates’ questions drew on basketball and their relationships with Brunson. Towns asked whether a performer could foul out of the show, and joked that he could therefore stay for the whole broadcast. Bridges showed off his wingspan and lamented that he would never fly. Anunoby recalled a missed shot that he tipped in, while Hart asked Brunson about a reported $113 million pay cut to re-sign with the Knicks. Brunson affirmed the figure during the segment, though the reports provide no independent financial documentation of it. The exchange also included a joke about Hart grabbing Brunson during the team’s championship celebration. Their back-and-forth kept the focus on the players’ on-court history and camaraderie, rather than turning the monologue into a conventional introduction to the host.