What Your CMO Can Learn From Jalen Brunson and the Knicks
There is a specific kind of energy that has shown up in New York since the Knicks historic playoff run.
The bodega has a take. The guy in the Uber has a take. The person who has not watched a full regular season game since Carmelo suddenly knows everything about defensive rotations. Every bar feels like a committee meeting. And honestly? It's beautiful.
The Knicks winning Game 1 of the NBA Finals wasn’t just a basketball result. It felt like a city exhaling and yelling at the same time. New York had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and the way it happened made it even better.
What Happened?
On the road in San Antonio, the Knicks were down by as many as 14. Brunson had a rough start, along with an injury scare and the game looked like it was slipping away. Then, somehow, the Knicks did what this version of the Knicks keeps doing. They trusted the work and each other. They made the game ugly and sharp enough to win.
Brunson finished with 30 points, including 13 in the final eight minutes. The Knicks won 105-95. That sentence looks clean now, but the game definitely wasn’t. It was tense, weird, physical, imperfect, and very New York. There is a lesson here for marketers and businesses too.
Why does it matter?
The most powerful brands, movements, teams and even people aren’t built on perfection. They are built on execution under pressure. That is what Jalen Brunson is for the Knicks. When the game gets hard, the Knicks know where to look. Every great brand needs that too.
It doesn’t have to be a person, although founder-led brands often work because they give the market a human anchor. It can be a story, a philosophy, a product, a style, or a promise. A way of showing up that people can believe in before the outcome is ever achieved.
The Knicks have not become interesting only because they are winning. Winning helps, obviously. Nobody is writing spiritual articles about 23-win teams unless they need a wellness check. But this team feels bigger because their identity is clear. They play like they trust the same thing which is rare in sports. It’s even rarer in marketing and businesses.
Brands don’t lose because of their logo (despite the fact that your CEO wants to spend 6 months going back and forth on it and a small fortune). Brands lose because nobody knows what they are supposed to believe about them. The messaging changes every quarter. The website says one thing, the ads say another, the founder says something else, and the customer ends up confused.
The Knicks do not have that problem right now. They know who they are. And because they know who they are, the city believes them.
There is a reason this feels different from normal sports hype. A great team turns private belief into public identity and turns into brand equity. A person wearing a Brunson jersey is not just saying “I like this player.” That jersey symbolizes toughness, resilience, and a city that has lost for decades and still shows up like the title is our birthright.
Meet Culture
There is a word for that: Culture. Marketers love to use that word, but most of them treat it like a coat of paint. Culture isn’t decorative though, it’s shared meaning. It is the thing that makes people feel like they are part of something before they ever buy, click, book, subscribe, or share.
The Knicks have created and rallied around culture. When people believe the story is theirs too, they do not just watch the game: they carry it with them. That is the lesson for marketers.
A brand does not become powerful when people can describe what it sells. It becomes powerful when people feel what it stands for. So, sit your marketing department down, put on your timbs, and tell them these three things:
1. Trust is the conversion engine.
When Brunson started cold, the Knicks did not abandon their identity. They stayed connected to the work, defense, and belief that the ball will still find the right person at the right time.
Brands should study that. Poor direction and cohesion internally will result in losses.
2. Your brand needs a point guard.
Every strong brand needs something that people can huddle around. A clear story, voice, or goal. Without that every campaign is just random movement.
Your brand needs the same thing. A central identity.
3. Culture makes people stay.
The Knicks were not perfect. People do not attach deeply to things because they are flawless. They attach because they see effort, identity, and belief that survives even when its tough.
Your brand can skyrocket with culture. Flawless just gives bragging rights.
The mrktbsd Take Away
The Knicks’ Game 1 win was a basketball game, but it was also a reminder of how belief moves through a city.
Jalen Brunson is not just putting up points for New York. He is giving the city a story it can see itself in. Tough, undersized, patient, slightly angry but deeply convinced and not going anywhere. That is what the best marketing does too.
Before ROI, CRMs, AI, and media plans, people gathered around fires and stories. They talked about the leader, the comeback, the symbol, the song, the tribe, the team. Marketing is just storytelling with a business outcome attached.
With leadership being at a disproportionately poor state currently, more of today’s C-Suite in business could learn from the Knicks. The Knicks are showing what happens when the story, the leader, the team, and the people you serve all point in the same direction.
Your CEO title is cool, but being part of a profitable and successful company that truly serves its clients is cooler.
In 2026, AI can generate content, draft the caption, write the email, and build the campaign. However, AI can’t generate culture, belief, buy-in or how New York felt last night. AI can’t create, nor save, your brand.
And if your marketing needs a point guard? You know where to find us. We can’t get you an NBA title, but we have been good at marketing way before the Knicks were good on the court.
Go Knicks.
