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New York Knicks fans have spent the summer celebrating a championship, packing a ticker-tape parade and presumably reminding everyone they know exactly what happened. Now, some of them have found another way to honor the man who helped make it happen: renaming an entire river.
A petition calling for the Hudson River to become the “Brunson River,” in honor of Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson, has racked up 9,876 signatures so far. Yes, the same Hudson River that stretches from the Adirondacks to New York Harbor and has been called the Hudson for more than four centuries. (Knicks fandom is nothing if not ambitious.)
The campaign follows the teams’ historic 2026 championship run, which ended a 53-year title drought. Brunson scored 45 points in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs and was named Finals MVP, cementing his place in New York sports lore.
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“I have never seen this city so united, so jubilant, as it is now—thanks to one incredible player: Jalen Brunson,” petition creator Toby Bucsescu wrote. “His exceptional talent and leadership have not only brought renewed hope to the Knicks but have also brought New Yorkers together in a way that we haven't seen in decades.”
The proposal also has a surprisingly convenient bit of geography working in its favor. The Hudson forms part of the border between New York and New Jersey and Brunson has deep Garden State roots: He was born in New Brunswick in 1996 and spent more than a decade living in Cherry Hill before his family moved to Illinois.
As for the river’s current namesake, Henry Hudson explored the waterway in 1609 while sailing for the Dutch East India Company, but he was not the first European to reach it. More than 400 years later, apparently some Knicks fans think that is long enough for one guy to have naming rights.
Of course, collecting thousands of online signatures and actually renaming one of America’s most famous waterways are two extremely different things, so don’t expect Google Maps to start directing you toward the Brunson River tomorrow.
Still, New York has already given Brunson a championship parade and a permanent place in Knicks history. If nearly 10,000 fans get their way, he could eventually have a 315-mile river, too.