NEW YORK (AP) – Jalen Brunson gave the New York Knicks a $113 million discount in potential salary and they gave him the title of team captain.

Two seasons into a partnership that has helped produce the Knicks’ greatest success in a quarter of a century, it’s clear the team and player believe in each other. Now they have at least a few more years to determine if it can yield something more.

“This is literally just the beginning,” Brunson said Thursday.

The Knicks staged a ceremonial event at Madison Square Garden for Brunson, complete with former Knicks stars such as Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing and celebrities that included actor and Knicks fan Ben Stiller. Ewing narrated a video that included a picture of him with Brunson as a boy, when his father, Rick, played for the Knicks.

“People just want to be around you, Jalen,” Ewing said on the video. “You´re a born leader.”

That attracted the Knicks to Brunson just as much as his playing skills when they signed him in the summer of 2022. Coach Tom Thibodeau, who had Rick Brunson as one of his assistant coaches in Chicago and again in New York, watched Brunson grow up and noticed not only how hard he worked, but how other players gravitated to him.

But even some of those players couldn’t be blamed if they questioned Brunson’s financial sense this summer.

He signed a four-year contract extension that is worth about $156.5 million. Had Brunson finished the final year of his current deal next season and then become a free agent, he would have been eligible for a five-year, $269 million contract.

Other players have taken less than their maximum allowable salary. Few would even consider passing on an extra $113 million.