The basketball illiteratti say the Knicks always have the second-best player on the floor. Last night Jalen Brunson broke the critics, the defense and the Suns in a historic 50-point masterpiece.

They look related, the league’s only blue-and-orange teams. Sound it, too. Phoe-nix. Knicks. So it makes a certain sense, the Suns living the life the Knicks were supposed to.

For all the trillions of keystrokes devoted to LeBron-to-the-Knicks takes over the years, that was never more than a fever dream’s fever dream. Kevin Durant? Now that’s different. KD was rumored to be MSG-bound, then the rumors started smoking, then they caught fire and flared high enough to be seen across the country, all the way to Oakland. Then Durant tore his Achilles, and two ships passed in the night, their agendas – once aligned – now eclipsed.

The Knicks were the losers, we were told. Embarrassing. Siempre “LOL Knicks.” Brooklyn walked in the club with a supermodel on each arm. The Knicks were out in the cold, behind the velvet rope, where Julius Randle kept spinning into people while Marcus Morris was sonning them.

But the reward for winning KD was always a projection, a mastery of the theoretical that could only bloat to fill a theoretical space. The Nets paid real dollars for a virtual champion, the greatest team to never exist. The Knicks turned Morris into something real: the pick that became Immanuel Quickley. Randle turned the Knicks into something real: a viable franchise, one that had something beyond theory to appeal to Jalen Brunson. Two franchises so similar, yet so apart.

In last night’s 139-122 Knicks’ win in Phoenix, Quickley played 24 minutes, in which time the Suns scored 48 points. In the 24 he sat, they scored 74. The box score shows Quickley scored 10 points and missed most of his shots. The box score, like the KD Nets and the KD Suns, is merely a formula, an abstract. Quickley is actual. Concrete. And a helluva player. 

Since 2019, Durant has scored 4,597 points. That’s 626 fewer than RJ Barrett in that time, over 2,000 fewer than Randle. In that time Durant’s been All-NBA once, versus twice for Randle. If the NBA were college football, a room full of jokers could vote KD’s teams some added points or wins based on how good he used to be and how good they think he still can be. The NBA is still a real sport, though, one where a board is a rebound and not a clutch of rich men fisting the world for more excess. 

Last night was the first time the Knicks won a game against KD since the magical 2013 season, before J.R. Smith’s elbow joined P.J. Brown and Charles Smith in the annals of Knicks playoff infamy. This wasn’t just one win over one team. The Knicks have now thoroughly repudiated all of the negativity they received after declining to pursue Durant four years ago. They didn’t go the superteam route. That didn’t work for Brooklyn. It hasn’t so far for Phoenix.

The league’s latest holy trinity lasted all of five minutes, until Bradley Beal twisted his ankle landing on Donte DiVincenzo’s heel. This was just Beal’s third game back after missing a month; the Suns now wait for an update on a 30-year-old due $161 million through 2027. Still, the math was on their side. The poor rooted-in-reality Knickerbockers didn’t feature the night’s best player, after all, not even the runner-up. Between Durant and Devin Booker, the Suns had all they’d need to win, if millionaire “analysts” are to be believed.

Alas, while KD and Booker are the best things the Suns have going for them, they combined to miss 10 of 12 shots in a fourth quarter they entered up two and lost 42-23. The pair missed a number of tough, contested shots. Is this what the playoffs will look like for them? These supposed contenders are 10th in the West with a little over two-thirds of the season remaining. How high can they hope to climb between now and April? Can they escape the Play-In? Even if they do, will their Big 3 play together enough this season to have developed chemistry come playoff time? If all their hopes boil down to Durant and Booker’s ability to make difficult shots, is that worth everything they’ve given up? Moses was the original big name in the desert, but for all his fame he never made it to the Promised Land.

You know who didn’t miss 10 of 12 in the fourth? Brunson. Took five shots and made ‘em all, after taking seven in the third and making all those, too. Brunson was a perfect 9-of-9 from deep on the night, scoring a career-high 50, 35 in the second half and 16 in the decisive fourth. And five steals. And the unselfishness you look for from your team’s best player.

Durant has a Mount Rushmore career behind him and a seat at the pantheon for all-time. Booker has a 70-piece with an asterisk in his past and can look ahead to his prime years and $220 million owed him by the time he’s 31. The Suns have everything the Knicks used to chase after. Last night they were who we thought they were: a dream, content without form, intangible. Ineffectual. Theoretical. Randle, Brunson and RJ all scored 20+ last night for the 18th time, fifth-most in franchise history, passing Walt Frazier/Willis Reed/Dave DeBusschere. That’s real. Matter matters. 

The Knicks won more games than Phoenix last year. They’ve won more this year. It’s funny: after all these years, the Knicks now offer everything KD could want, while he’s part of a faith whose gods nearly outnumber their disciples. The Suns are living the life the Knicks were supposed to. Getting what you want often has nothing to do with ending up happy.