Brunson Becomes Fifth NBA Player to Host SNL

Knicks champion Jalen Brunson hosted SNL's season premiere, joining Russell, Jordan, Barkley and James as the show's only NBA-connected hosts.

Jalen Brunson hosted the season 52 premiere of "Saturday Night Live" on Saturday, September 26, shot at NBC's Studio 8H in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, with KATSEYE as musical guest. According to nba.com, that makes the Knicks star just the fifth person with deep NBA connections to host the show, joining Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and LeBron James. Bleacher Report notes he is the first NBA player to host since James in 2007. The episode came just before Knicks training camp opens, days after Brunson led New York to its first championship since 1973 and was named Finals MVP.

NBC reports the monologue doubled as a Knicks reunion: Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart sat in the audience and fired questions at the host. Towns asked whether it's possible to "foul out of SNL," while Hart wondered aloud about Brunson's reported $113 million pay cut to re-sign with the Knicks. USA Today reports Brunson also joked about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Madison Square Garden wedding, saying he'd look around the arena this season thinking of the spot where they married.

The standout, by fan consensus on X reported by HITC, was a "High School Musical"-style pretape called "North High," in which Brunson's new student outshines Jeremy Culhane's star player on the court, then beats him at theater and takes his girl. NBC Sports highlights an "Office MVP" sketch where Brunson, as office worker Darius, cannot sink a wadded wrapper in a trash can yet refuses to quit, inventing excuses for why one more second remains on the clock before revealing his identity. Other bits included a "Shark Tank" parody, "Airport Massage Chairs" and a "Dream Academy" spoof introducing new cast members.

boston.com's reviewer argues athletes rarely make good SNL hosts — with exceptions like Peyton Manning and Charles Barkley — and describes Brunson's own delivery as admittedly wooden, saved by a forgiving New York crowd and the teammate cameos. ScreenRant, by contrast, calls the monologue charming and endearing, singling out his joke that he would host the way the Knicks play Finals games: a rough first three quarters before an amazing final sketch. The split verdicts show how interpretive athlete-host reviews remain.

nba.com traces the lineage: Bill Russell hosted November 3, 1979, riffing on teamwork with Bill Murray; Michael Jordan followed his first title into the 1991 season opener and the Stuart Smalley affirmation sketch; Charles Barkley hosted four times beginning in 1993, including a promo with Nirvana; and a 22-year-old LeBron James opened season 33 in 2007. Russell's daughter Karen Kenyatta Russell noted on X that her father was the first NBA player to host, congratulating Brunson. Brunson is the first sports-world host since Travis Kelce in 2023, per USA Today.

USA Today reports Brunson will return to NBC in November with a confirmed guest role on "Law & Order: SVU," before the Knicks open the 2026-27 season against Philadelphia on October 20, per Bleacher Report. The next SNL hosts include Dakota Johnson, Shane Gillis and Inde Navarrette. Brunson closed the goodnights thanking "everybody at SNL for a great week" and saying he'd be getting "back to my real job pretty soon" — a championship defense that begins in under a month.