JALEN BRUNSON’S rise to the top of the NBA is complete. With a game five victory against the San Antonio Spurs over the weekend delivering the New York Knicks their first championship since 1973 and cementing Brunson’s status as a cult hero, there’s no mountain left for him to climb. The secret to his success? It could be his diet.
Brunson has what he calls a “mostly plant-based diet”. He doesn’t eat red meat, has been pescatarian in the past and focuses on eating high-protein and high-fibre foods.
Managing his diet for performance was something Brunson had to learn after making the jump to college ball at Villanova university. “I learned how to eat – what to eat, what to put in my body – when I was in college,” he previously told GQ. “We always had a nutritionist who had a plan and taught us what foods to shy away from.”
For the most part, his focus is simple: be consistent and don’t develop bad habits, but one day off won’t derail your progress. “You want to learn how to limit your bad habits,” Brunson said. “It’s okay to go out and have something you’re not supposed to eat. But invest in nutrition early. You don’t want to get to that point where you need to change, and it’s hard to do it. It’s better to address that early.”
Brunson’s diet has been mostly plant-based since he was in college. “I’m not fully plant-based, but I’ve introduced a lot of plant-based things into my diet,” he says. “I haven’t eaten red meat since my freshman year of college. Then after that, I took out pork. I miss bacon, though; I’m not going to lie to you.”
He experimented with pescatarianism but eventually brought chicken back into his diet. “There was a point in time when I was a pescatarian,” he says. “I was off chicken for like two years. But I brought it back and decided to just cut out red meat and pork because I was really craving chicken wings for, like, two years.”
As an elite athlete, Brunson knows what works for him and what doesn’t. Since becoming mostly plant-based, he says he’s noticed a change in energy levels. “I’ve definitely seen a difference in how I feel,” he says. “There’s a difference in how I feel in the morning – my energy versus slouching around in bed and not wanting to get up.”
For Brunson, diet is just another way he can get an edge on the court – like perfecting his shooting form or hitting the weight room. “The reason why I’ve always wanted to improve my diet is because I’m always looking for ways to make myself better,” he says. “You can only do so much with film or on-court stuff. How can you get an extra advantage by doing something in your everyday life? That was something I was mindful of.”
Plant-based diets have their critics, but when an NBA champion and finals MVP says it works for him, who are we to disagree?
