With the game on the line, New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson didn’t flinch. He didn’t shy away or look for someone else to shoulder the moment. He wanted the ball.
We often hear the phrase “wanting the ball” in sports. But on Thursday night in Detroit, with four seconds left and the score tied 113-113, Brunson didn’t just want the shot—he demanded it. When he got it, he delivered one of the most decisive shots the NBA has seen in recent years, shedding a world-class defender, then launching a three-pointer that knocked the Pistons out of the playoffs and lifted the Knicks to the next round.
New York head coach Tom Thibodeau said it best. “Jalen’s at his best when his best is needed.” That is the very definition of being clutch.
We live in a world—in business, in life, and on the court and other athletic arenas—where pressure has a way of showing who you can count on when it counts. When the final presentation is due, the client is on the fence, or your team is down to its last shot, who steps up? It’s easy to lead when there’s no scoreboard.
But legacy is forged in moments of consequence.
Brunson’s buzzer-beater didn’t just earn the win—it earned the respect of one of the most clutch players in NBA history. “When it was time to win, Jalen Brunson scored 40 points including a game-winning three that was set up by one of the most unbelievable crossover dribbles I’ve ever seen,” Magic Johnson noted after the game. That’s rare air. When Magic Johnson talks about a player’s performance in clutch-time, we should all take notes.
In business, we often mistake high performance for dependability. But as Forbes contributor and transition expert George Bradt recently wrote, there’s a difference between people who can perform and those who must perform. “Amazing individuals and teams assemble amazing records only to fall short when we least expect it,” he wrote. “While they may have had great strengths, great leadership, and great preparation, they didn’t deliver on that project, that accountability, at that moment, in the clutch.”
Bradt’s insights on clutch-time winners are revealing. These people show up with five defining characteristics: focus, discipline, adaptability, presence, and balancing hunger for success with a fear of failure. When others hope someone else will take the final shot, clutch performers demand it. Not for ego, but because they feel the responsibility. They are prepared, which shows they care more.
Brunson performs when it counts, so much so that Alan Hahn of ESPN compared him to baseball’s ultimate closer. “He has become what New York remembers Mariano Rivera as—the greatest closer in the history of baseball,” Hahn said about Brunson on Friday. “You know who’s getting the ball. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
That is what business leaders should always strive to be. You want to be the person your team looks to when there’s no room for error, when the pressure is highest, just as the Knicks know Brunson can carry them to victory.
Just last week, Brunson was named the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year, and for good reasons. Coach Thibodeau reminded everyone about how Brunson has been stepping up at the end of games throughout the season. “He’s done it all year,” Thibodeau said. “That’s what makes him special.”
What truly separates Brunson from the rest were his comments after the win over the Pistons. He wasn’t dwelling on the big shot. Instead, he was already focused on the defending champion Boston Celtics who are waiting for the Knicks in the next round. “We’re playing the defending champs next, so it’s going to be a lot different,” Brunson said. “They have experience.”
That’s the mindset of a true competitor, taking pride in winning but staying locked in on the bigger mission. Every organization needs people who can lead in the clutch—who, like Brunson, want the ball when the stakes are highest. Performing when it counts is a surefire way of building a legacy.