New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson has been named the 2024-25 NBA Clutch Player of the Year award winner as the player who best comes through for his teammates late in close games.
The award, which was first presented in 2022-23, is voted upon by a media panel of 100 individuals from across the globe. They then choose from a pool of players who received nominations from NBA head coaches.
Overall, Brunson averaged 26.0 points and 7.3 assists in 35.4 minutes in 65 games this season, putting him in the top 10 for both points and assists per game across the league. The 28 year old shot 51.5% from the field and 84.0% from the free throw line in clutch time. In the 28 clutch games (defined as the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points) in which he played, the Knicks had a record of 17-11.
Brunson earned 70 out of a possible 100 first place votes, and ended up with 426 total points. His next closest competitor was Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets who earned 26 first place votes, and 312 points overall.
“I think some people are born into it,” Brunson told TNT’s Inside the NBA panel on Wednesday night. “I think I had to learn back in high school, and I’ve gotten better and better at each stage, and here we are… Just finding a way to win. That’s the most important thing. You can make clutch plays but they don’t mean anything if you don’t win. The winning part is most important to me.”
The award marks the 2nd of 7 major individual awards which the NBA will be handing out over the course of the next several weeks. Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard took home the 6th Man of the Year award on Tuesday night, while Defensive Player of the Year, and the Hustle Award will be handed on Thursday and Friday respectively.
Brunson and the Knicks are currently tied 1-1 with the Detroit Pistons in their first round matchup, with the series shifting back to Detroit for Game 3 on Thursday.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.