Jalen Brunson opened Season 52 of Saturday Night Live with a musical guest named Katseye, but the real show belonged to his teammates. Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby all showed up at Studio 8H to roast their team captain during his monologue, and the jokes landed harder than anyone expected.
The night started with Kenan Thompson taking the stage as ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith. “Let me say this, Jalen Brunson. I am man enough to admit that I was wrong,” Thompson-as-Smith said. He admitted that when the New York Knickerbockers signed Brunson, he doubted Brunson could deliver the team’s first championship since 1973, when he was only 5 years old.
“When the New York Knickerbockers signed you and I did not think that you were the answer, nor did I believe that you could deliver the team’s first championship since 1973, when I was only 5 years old.”
Brunson interrupted with a simple question: “How long’s this going to go?” Smith replied: “About another seven minutes.” Brunson booted his “detractor” off the stage and took questions from the audience, which just so happened to include his teammates.
Towns led the way with a joke about his own dismissal from Game 5. “I have a question. Can you foul out of ‘SNL’?” he asked. “I could be here, like, the whole show?”
Bridges and Anunoby joined in, and then Hart got a big laugh. “Is it true that you took a $113 million pay cut just to resign with the Knicks?” Brunson said, “Yeah, that’s pretty true.” Hart responded, “Wow, so is that money, like, still up for grabs?”
The Pay-Cut Joke
The $113 million pay-cut line drew attention. Brunson confirmed the move, and Hart’s follow-up raised a question about whether the money was still available.
What the Knicks Play Next
The Knicks play their first season game on Oct. 20.
A Friendly Roast
The roast kept the tone light. Towns’s foul-out question referenced his own dismissal, but it was playful rather than bitter. Hart’s pay-cut question was sharp, but it landed as a joke rather than a complaint.
This was a fun stunt, not a serious dig. The Knicks starting five showed up to support Brunson, and the monologue gave them a platform to be themselves — funny, competitive and a little bit boastful about their own success. Brunson handled the questions with grace.
The pay-cut joke will likely be remembered as the standout moment, but the whole segment worked because everyone involved knew exactly what they were doing. Brunson’s teammates came to support him, and the SNL writers gave them lines that let them do just that.
The Knicks have their first game on Oct. 20, and Brunson has already proven he can handle a national stage. Whether he can handle a full season of roasts remains to be seen, but he certainly knows how to start one.
Source material: “Jalen Brunson’s ‘SNL’ Monologue Sees Knicks Starting 5 Roasting Each Other,” Variety.
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