Jalen Brunson revels in his moment as the latest (and hilarious) host of NBC’s Saturday Night Live
The former Villanova guard brought on some of his old Wildcats and current Knicks teammates in a successful first appearance as the host of the popular late-night show.
Josh Hart had one question when Jalen Brunson opened the floor during his Saturday Night Live monologue: Was the $113 million his former Villanova teammate passed up to stay with the Knicks still up for grabs?
Hart and Mikal Bridges later joined Brunson onstage, reuniting Villanova’s championship trio in Studio 8H.
Brunson hosted Saturday’s season premiere three months after leading the Knicks to their first NBA championship since 1973. Hart and Bridges were seated in the audience with teammates Karl-Anthony Towns and O.G. Anunoby when Brunson invited questions.
Towns asked whether he could foul out of SNL. Anunoby reminded Brunson of a missed shot that Anunoby tipped in to win Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Bridges wanted Brunson to acknowledge his long arms, then lamented that he would never be able to fly.
Hart’s $113 million joke referred to the extension Brunson signed in 2024. The four-year, $156.5 million deal was roughly $113 million less than a five-year extension he could have sought by waiting until 2025. After answering Hart, Brunson asked why Hart had poked him during a Knicks celebration.
Hart’s explanation was simple: “Because it was funny.”
The three former Wildcats won the 2016 national championship together. Brunson and Bridges added another Villanova title in 2018, after Hart had left for the NBA.
A decade after their first championship together, all three were part of the Knicks’ title run.
Brunson opened the monologue with a promise about his hosting performance.
“The first three quarters of the show are going to be god-awful,” he said. “The last sketch is going to be amazing.”
Basketball followed him into his sketches. In “Office MVP,” Brunson played a coworker who kept finding reasons for one more attempt to toss a wrapper into a trash can. “North High” put him on a school basketball team in a High School Musical parody.
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The show found other ways to bring Brunson’s basketball life into the episode. In “Office MVP,” a meeting stalled when his character missed a shot into a trash can. He insisted there was still one second on an imaginary clock, then kept resetting it for another attempt.
When a coworker thought he had run out of crumpled wrappers, he produced a basket full of them. Eventually, he revealed that the man struggling with an office wastebasket was Brunson.
“North High” gave him a different opponent. Playing a transfer student in a High School Musical parody, Brunson joined a basketball team led by a student who expected to be the star. Brunson outplayed him on the court. When the student turned to singing, Brunson showed him up there, too, and won over his girlfriend.
The night’s final sketch, “Old Friend,” brought another Philadelphia basketball connection into view.
Brunson played himself in a locker room as Kenan Thompson approached him, claiming to be a coach from his childhood. Another stranger claimed to be his father. Brunson rejected that story with a joke about his real father’s bald head.
His father, Rick Brunson, is an assistant coach with the Knicks and a former Temple guard. He played for John Chaney alongside Aaron McKie and Eddie Jones and entered Temple’s athletics Hall of Fame in 2011. The Temple connection stayed beneath the sketch’s joke, just as the Villanova connection did during the monologue.
Thompson had appeared earlier in the show as Stephen A. Smith, delivering a lengthy apology for doubting Brunson when he signed with New York. Brunson cut him off before taking questions from his teammates.
He also looked ahead to returning to Madison Square Garden, joking that it was the spot where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had gotten married.
Brunson became the fifth NBA player to host SNL, following Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and LeBron James. James was the last active NBA player to host in 2007.
For Brunson, the television appearance came just before another opening night: The Knicks begin their title defense against the Sixers on Oct. 20 at Madison Square Garden.
