How Jalen Brunson was groomed to be unorthodox

For as long as Jalen Brunson can remember, the basketball was in his left hand. It started with a Little Tikes hoop, the plastic adjustable rim with the lowest setting of 2 ½ feet.

“Shoot with your left,” Brunson recalled, “shoot with your left.”

That’s not a unique backstory for a basketball player. The Little Tikes hoops are popular. But there’s something different about Brunson practicing lefty shots at that age:

He’s a natural righty.

The Knicks point guard was groomed by his father to play with his offhand, a strategy that successfully boosted Brunson’s advantage at the highest level.

Now he’s a budding NBA star with a nine-figure contract, the best reason to feel good about purchasing tickets at MSG these days.

And Derrick Rose, who is developing his own 10-year-old son, wants tips from the elder Brunson.

“I’m picking his mind. Like, ‘Rick, how did you get him there? Because he made him left-handed,” Rose said. “He wasn’t left-handed at first, but Rick made him left-handed.

“I asked him everything, ‘When [Jalen] was growing up, what did you do?’ He put a ball in his hands. You’ve got to always have a ball. That’s what I tell my son. That’s the difference from every athlete — that’s what separates an athlete and the guys in the NBA from regular citizens or regular people, is we have a different relationship with the ball. I’ll be telling my son, ‘This has got to be your first girlfriend.’ He laughs, but I’m like, ‘Seriously, you’ve got to have a relationship with the ball that’s different than anyone else in the world.’ That’s what the 400-plus players in the NBA have over everyone.”

Brunson, 26, still writes and eats with his right hand. He’s a lefty golfer. With the way Brunson masterfully navigates the court — weaving around towering defenders to create space for an increasingly efficient shot — it’s surprising that such deftness and coordination is mostly accomplished with an offhand.

But that’s a part of Brunson’s success. Rick, a lefty point guard on the Knicks almost 25 years ago, knew what he was doing with his dominant-hand conversion rearing.

Despite Jalen’s limited athleticism, he’s a frustrating and confusing assignment.

“There’s not a lot of lefties,” Jalen Brunson said. “So I guess everything is the opposite for defenders. I just think it’s a little unorthodox.”

There’s also the advantage of being fully comfortable going right.

“He’s very good going both ways,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “So, if you start leaning one way, he’s great at reading a defense.”

Although only about 10% of NBA players are lefties, the Knicks have three who dominate the minutes and the ball — Brunson, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett. It’s unusual but certainly working for Brunson, who entered Wednesday’s game against the Hawks averaging career highs in points (23.9) and assists (6.2) while shooting 41.7% on 3-pointers.

Since the New Year, he was putting up superstar scoring numbers — averaging 29.8 points — which left Brunson as the biggest All-Star snub.

“It’s pretty obvious to all of us that he’s an All-Star,” Thibodeau said.

So will Brunson, who got engaged to his fiance last year, also try to convert his future children into lefties?

“It would be a consideration, for sure,” he smiled. “I think it has done me well.”