Alex Rodriguez once tried to take less money but didn’t get any Jalen Brunson-like praise
NY Post
It’s funny the way perception works. Jalen Brunson has enjoyed a full day’s worth of a skyrocketing approval rating after agreeing to an extension that’ll leave (for now anyway) $113 million on the table.
(It’s at about 98.5 percent, and not 100, because there are those who — fairly — point out that Brunson isn’t exactly donating the entirety of the $39 million he WILL be receiving annually to UNICEF).
Thing is, Brunson was already hovering around 95 percent, especially with Knicks fans. He’s not only a terrific player but always comes across as a generally good dude — eager to needle his teammates, even more likely to over-praise them, ever accountable, ever accessible.
“Haven’t you heard?” Josh Hart said last winter. “Jalen is the perfect person.”
He said that with a dry smile. But there was an element of truth, too.
So, sure, it’s possible that because Brunson is so inherently likeable, his decision on his contract was greeted with even more enthusiasm than it might have. We want to like the guys we root for. We want to think the investment we make in them is a worthy one. Tom Brady has been inevitably linked to all of this because he gave up a lot of nickels and dimes through the years, and though he may not have always been quite the choirboy Brunson has been, it’s hard to build up a strong dislike for Tom Brady the person (as opposed to Tom Brady the football assassin).
With the Yankees on an impressive run of mostly correct decisions, there’s some reason to leave them alone and just let the best team in the American League continue to roll. But they did raise serious doubt and leave room for suggestions (and even ridicule) following maybe the most inexplicable decision of this season, or any season.
The Giants have never been 0-2 under Brian Daboll, until now. They were 2-0 and flying high in 2022 and 1-1 after a rousing comeback in Arizona in 2023. So, this represents a low point as far as early-season difficulties for Daboll and the Giants. They had no business beating the Vikings in the opener and no business losing to the Commanders in Week 2. But here they are.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Harrison Butker kept making a lonely walk to midfield after each quarter Sunday to check on the direction of the wind, which tends to swirl inside Arrowhead Stadium. He did it one last time during the 2-minute warning, when his Chiefs were trailing the Bengals by two and trying to give him a winning field-goal attempt.