​Jalen Brunson has capped off his stellar night at the ESPYs with the crown of the ‘Best Athlete in Men’s Sports.’ He eclipsed Lionel Messi, Shohei Ohtani, and Matthew Stafford to win this award.“First and foremost, winning this award among a group like that means the world,” said Brunson while pointing at the list of elite athletes he surpassed in this race.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I want to say thank you to the fans, I really appreciate y’all. My family, my teammates, everyone who has always believed in me. I’m at a loss for words, it’s been a hell of a run to say the least,” he added in his acceptance speech.Jalen Brunson ended the year averaging 26.5 points, 6.6 assists, and 3.3 rebounds in 93 games played (including the playoffs). He shot 46.7% from the floor and 36.8% from behind the three-point line throughout the season.With this award, Brunson took his personal tally to three individual ESPY Awards: Best Athlete in Men’s Sports, Best NBA Player, and Best Championship Performance.But he further topped up this tally with the special recognition of his team as the Knicks also got the Best Team award in all sports. Nine of the Knicks’ championship-winning players attended the event. A key person missing was Josh Hart, and Brunson made sure to point that out.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“We want to say thank you to the ESPYs for pulling Josh Hart’s invite,” said Brunson hilariously as the crowd broke out in laughter before Karl-Anthony Towns gave the acceptance speech for this award.“I want to say thank y’all from all of my teammates. I hope this trophy, especially getting it here in New York, shows the world love. The love for each other on this team is what got us through the humps in December when we weren’t playing our best basketball. The love from the fans is what got us back from down 29 at home.”“And also this sport shows the love of New York, because it is the love of New York that made this whole journey and this whole accomplishment of winning a championship worth it. So thank you, New York, thank you, fans, thank you to the Knicks organization for believing in us. Shoutout and always, Knicks in five,” said Towns.So Brunson exits the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York with three individual awards and one team award.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Knicks ended up winning every award they were nominated for, which also includes OG Anunoby getting the ‘Best Play’ award for his tip-in to close out the 29-point comeback over the Spurs in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Definitely a night Brunson and the team won’t forget.