Jalen Brunson Biography: Net Worth, Salary, Family and Career Stats

The New York Knicks ace Jalen Brunson was born on August 31, 1996, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Brunson, as a point guard, has the capability to lead the teams into the playoffs and trouble the opponents with his fast footwork in the paints. Due to his quick cuts with low center of gravity movements, it becomes difficult for defenders to tackle his layups. That's why he is the recipient of titles like 2x NCAA Champion and NBA All-Star. But today, we are going to unravel the personal details of Jalen Brunson along with the professional ones.

Jalen Brunson Early Life

Jalen Brunson grew up in Cherry Hills, New Jersey, but then his father moved to seven different locations to settle in Lincolnshire, Illinois, in 2010. His father, Rick, was an NBA athlete, so moving frequently was not a big thing for him. Rather, his mother, Sandra, and father met during their college days at Temple University. Both of them were athletes, and it gelled them together. When Jalen grew up, his father's career also took a separate path since he took the coaching jobs in the NBA. On the other hand, his son was making headlines as a player. The year Brunson joined the Knicks, his father had also joined the coaching department of the same franchise as an assistant coach.

Jalen Brunson Biography

Jalen Brunson Career

Jalen Brunson might be the son of an NBA athlete, but he worked hard throughout his basketball journey to secure his spot as a star in the NBA. He was a late pick in the draft, yet he made sure that his presence was felt in the league. Even during his collegiate career, the success that he earned while winning two championships was solely due to his own skill and striving for better performance. We are going to explore this grit of Brunson in a more nuanced way under the following heads.

Jalen Brunson High School Career

Jalen Brunson went to attend Stevenson High School in Illinois to get the basic competency in basketball. During his Sophomore season, Brunson took his high school team to the IHSA Class 4A state championship averaging 21.5 points. He increased his powerhouse performances during his junior season, where he started the season with 57 points in a game against Lake Forest High School. He earned the title of Gatorade Player of the Year this season.

However, the senior season wasn't so amiable for him at all since he faced losses in important matchups. He committed to playing for Villanova University and attended the Jordan Brand Classic along with the McDonald's All-American after his senior season. Here are the stats that Brunson had put up during his high school career.

Jalen Brunson College Career

Jalen played three seasons with the Villanova Wildcats, and two of the times, he won the NCAA title with his college basketball team. The first one he won as a freshman, beating the North Carolina Tar Heels in the NCAA Finals. In his junior season, Brunson was able to win another NCAA title, after which he declared for the draft.

Jalen Brunson Professional Career

He was selected as the 33rd overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks. He proved his worth for the Mavs gradually and was part of the team's Western Conference Finals appearance in the 2021-22 season.

In 2022, he signed a four-year, $104 million contract with the New York Knicks. After joining the Knicks, his stats improved since he was now getting a chance with the ball to actually score on the court. That's why, he tried to take the team past the playoff troubles for two years. However, the New York roster could not get past the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals hurdle both times. Here are the numbers that Jalen Brunson has put up so far in the league while playing for different teams, according to ESPN archives:

Jalen Brunson Awards and Achievements

The awards and achievements that will be mentioned here will not only include the NBA accolades of Jalen Brunson but also his collegiate recognition. That's why it is important to mention how Jalen, along with his Villanova Wildcats squad, was able to win two NCAA Championships in his collegiate career. In the latter collegiate title win, he even took away the NCAA National Player of the Year honor in 2018. Brunson also went on to play in international competitions, securing his spot as the FIBA Under-19 World Cup MVP in 2015.

In the NBA, Jalen Brunson is limited to NBA All-Star appearances two times and deep playoff runs. Apart from that, he has not yet received any league leadership award or honor.

Jalen Brunson Record

It is not much of a time that Jalen Brunson has spent in the league. However, during this period, Jalen has managed to reach the Western Conference Finals once while playing for the Dallas Mavericks. Later on, he made it to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals two times in a row, representing the New York Knicks. But he is yet to become a part of a championship-winning roster in the NBA.

But his achievements can be belittled based on his association with teams in the league. He has shown his prowess as a basketball player from time to time. That's how he was able to accumulate the following records during his playing time within the league:

Jalen Brunson Net Worth and Salary

Jalen Brunson's net worth is estimated to be $20 million. For athletes like Jalen Brunson, such kind of money comes from the lucrative NBA salary and hefty deals with the brands in the form of endorsements. Coming to the endorsement part, Brunson has a deal with Nike, but it is not clear whether he signed a signature shoe deal or just a player-exclusive shoe deal. Apart from that, he has associations with brands like Dollar Shave Club, Hecho Tequila Soda, Haute Living, American Express, MSI Computers, Faherty clothing company, DoorDash, and also Pedialyte.

Recently, Brunson also inked a multi-year deal with the sports drink brand BodyArmor. Coming to the salary in the NBA, Jalen Brunson is on a 4 year, $156,549,124 contract with the New York Knicks, according to Spotrac. He will have an average annual salary of $39,137,281 during this period. Brunson is getting paid under the terms of the 4 year $104 million contract with New York that he signed on July 12, 2022.

Jalen Brunson Wife

Jalen Brunson is married to his longtime high school love, Ali Marks currently. The couple went to the Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois where they kicked off the dating in October 2013. Marks has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northwestern University. After dating for nine years, Jaken Brunson proposed to his longtime girlfriend in the gym of his high school in September 2022.

Soon, the couple tied the knot on July 29, 2023, at Chicago’s Ritz-Carlton. It was a lavish ceremony where not everyone was invited for the big moment. Highlighting the importance of the known ones in the room, Brunson revealed to the People, “We wanted to bring all of our closest friends [and] family together in a city that means so much to both of us.”

Jalen Brunson Parents

The names of Jalen Brunson's parents are Rick and Sandra Brunson. Notably, both of Jalen's parents come from an athletic background, that's why choosing sports as a career was not a big deal for him. Rather, he received encouragement and support from his parents. His mother, Sandra, used to play volleyball at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Currently, she is employed as a Litigation Paralegal at Camping World and Good Sam Club.

Brunson's father, Rick, aka Eric Daniel Brunson, was an NBA athlete who played in the league for nine seasons. The teams that he represented in the league were the Portland Trail Blazers, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Clippers, and the Seattle SuperSonics, respectively. Rick picked up various jobs after his retirement. First, he was director of basketball operations for the Virginia Cavaliers (University of Virginia) and Camden High School coach in New Jersey. He also worked as an assistant coach for the Hartford Hawks (University of Hartford) and in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the New York Knicks.

Jalen Brunson Kids

After tying the knot in 2023 with Ali Marks, Jalen Brunson welcomed his daughter Jordyn James Brunson on July 31, 2024. It was a surprise for even the Brunson fans since their hero did not even reveal to the public that Marks was expecting a baby. They just made the announcement about the birth of their baby on Instagram.

Jalen Brunson Shoes

Jalen Brunson doesn't have his own signature shoe line with Nike, but he wears player-exclusive (PE) Nike Kobe models. A little while ago, he was seen wearing various colorways of the Kobe 4, 5, and 6 Protro. He is associated with the Nike brand, but he does not have player-exclusive shoes here. That's why Nike revealed the player exclusive for former Villanova Wildcats player to honor his collegiate legacy.

It was Kobe 4 Protro in the "The Nattys" colorway that Brunson later revealed on his Instagram. A black colored plain shoe with blue swoosh simmering to the heel. There were hues of golden in the blue swoosh. Brunson has been donning the Kobe shoes since high school because Kobe Bryant gifted a pair of his Christmas-inspired kicks to him in 2014.

Jalen Brunson Jersey

When Jalen Brunson was selected as the 33rd overall pick in the NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks, he wished to wear the number 11 jersey. Fortunately for him, Frank Ntilikina, a Mavs player who wore the same jersey number, agreed to change his number. Eventually, Jalen Brunson got the number 11 jersey for the Dallas Mavericks, and even to this day, he wears the same number 11 jersey while playing for the Knicks.

There are two versions of Jalen Brunson's New York Knicks jerseys available in the market. The first one comes with the hues of orange, white, and blue, with white being the dominant color. On the other hand, there is another jersey in which blue covers the major part of it while white and orange form the contrast on it.