On Thursday, Knicks’ Jalen Brunson received a dose of good news when he found out that his team was trading for former college teammate, Josh Hart.
The NBA trade deadline saw a dizzying amount of transactions happen hour after hour starting with Kevin Durant’s early morning bombshell move to Phoenix. 16 total trades were made in the final 13 hours of the deadline, one of which included the Portland Trail Blazers trading Josh Hart to the New York Knicks.
The trade, which reunited New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson with Villanova teammate Josh Hart, sent Cam Reddish, a protected 2023 first-round pick, and a few throw-ins to Portland.
Brunson, on his part, was overjoyed upon learning Hart had been traded to New York and happened to be at Villanova when he heard the news. The night prior, Brunson’s No. 1 jersey was being retired at halftime during Villanova’s game against DePaul earlier — all things considered, it’s been a pretty good week for Brunson.
Watch his ecstatic reaction here:
Jalen Brunson whoops for joy after Knicks trade for Josh Hart
Following the trade, Josh Hart posted orange and blue hearts on Twitter, signifying the continuation of a beautiful friendship between two Wildcats in the Big Apple.
Brunson and Hart were teammates for two seasons at Villanova, and both played major roles in helping the Wildcats win the 2016 national championship. Three other players from that team are still in the NBA — Ryan Arcidiacono, Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo.
One could see this trade working out slightly better for the Trail Blazers, who get extra draft capital and a high-upside scorer in Cam Reddish after Reddish struggled to fit in New York’s rotation this year.
Team chemistry, however, is vastly underrated and explains why some nuclear reactive acquisitions (assembling the short-lived Nets’ Big Three, for example) don’t work out while gentle earth-shaking ones (Gary Payton II with the Dubs!) do.
Along with his strong rapport with Brunson, Hart excels as an offensive rebounder despite his smaller size, and he poses as a strong two-way player averaging 9.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists for Portland this season.
Jalen Brunson now gets to team up with his college buddy in New York, and the former Mavs player also wins the trade deadline by avoiding the toxic, radioactive curse of Kyrie Irving. Luka’s on his own with that one.