Sometimes, players cursing in postgame interviews is about them taking exception to a particular reporter or line of questioning. Sometimes, it’s just exuberance over a win. And other times still, it’s about their teammates doing something to disrupt the interview. That apparently was the case for a “f****** a******” New York Knicks’ point guard Jalen Brunson fired off during a postgame interview with MSG’s Alan Hahn after his 42-point, 10-rebound performance in a comeback win over the Houston Rockets Monday, which was at teammate Josh Hart for tapping his butt:
“F**king a**hole”
–– Jalen Brunson to his butt tapper pic.twitter.com/RXzhS4p8R2
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) February 4, 2025
A clip posted by the NBA’s X account shows this was indeed Hart. And that makes sense: Hart famously played at Villanova with Brunson (where Brunson also let some f-bombs fly). And Hart co-hosts the prominent Roommates Show podcast with Brunson, and has long been in a back-and-forth trolling war with him):
The college buddies are still at it🤣@jalenbrunson1 x @joshhart pic.twitter.com/HjKF2ZhG7q
— NBA (@NBA) February 4, 2025
Amusingly, while the NBA account showed that interaction, this whole part got edited out of the Knicks on MSG X account’s post of the interview. (But that does show how this resumed in normal fashion not long after.)
“It’s all about holding each other accountable, making sure we’re in the right mindset and sticking with it” – @jalenbrunson1 on battling through physical games to secure the W@nyknicks | @alanhahn | #NewYorkForever pic.twitter.com/GQzEk6lrLu
— KNICKS ON MSG (@KnicksMSGN) February 4, 2025
As noted, the trolling between Hart and Brunson isn’t all one-sided. Indeed, back on Jan. 25, it was Brunson interrupting Hart’s postgame interview with Hahn:
Josh Hart too concerned about getting his butt tapped by Jalen Brunson to speak to Alan Hahn pic.twitter.com/HQ6MOjEoEi
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) January 26, 2025
At any rate, none of this is too big of a deal. But it is funny that the initial clip and camera angle didn’t catch what happened and why Brunson said this, only for the NBA’s official X account to post a video making more sense of it.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.