Jalen Brunson Brings the New York Knicks to the ‘Saturday Night Live’ Season 52 Premiere

Saturday Night Live is kicking off its 52nd season with NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson as its first host, and he had his starting lineup there to support him.

Brunson kicked off his monologue by recounting his time winning the 2026 NBA championship this year with the New York Knicks.

“Tonight I’m gonna approach hosting in the same way I approach the Knicks finals game; so the first three quarters of the show are gonna be god awful. The last sketch is gonna be amazing,” he said. “This summer, I helped the Knicks win the NBA championship. By now, you’ve all heard me talk about it, but you haven’t heard me sing about it… And obviously I’m not going to.”

He also joked about the season’s upcoming beginning, and being back in Madison Square Garden, where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married this summer.

“The new season is just a couple of weeks away, and I gotta say, it’s gonna be pretty cool to be back at Madison Square Garden. Looking around like, wow, just a few months ago, this was the exact spot where Taylor and Travis got married,” he said. Brunson

The New York Knicks won the NBA championship in June of this year, marking their first win since 1973. Brunson was awarded with the tile of NBA Finals MVP after the dynamic season. To support his debut as an SNL host, the Knicks’ starting five, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, were all in attendance.

Brunson said he was going to take questions from the audience, to which the camera panned over to make way for his teammates.

The New York Knicks star and Katseye were the first host and musical guest pair of the new season, also notably making their SNL debuts. Next week, Dakota Johnson will host with Turnstile as the musical act.

Shane Gillis will host on Oct. 10 with musical guest Rosalia, while Obsession star Inde Navarrette makes her SNL hosting debut on the special Halloween episode. She’ll be joined by Gracie Abrams.