Jalen Brunson says his parents made him choose between basketball and a social life
“My parents told me when I was in high school that I have three things to choose from. I have school, I have basketball, I have my social life to choose from. And I can only pick two of the three. And school was clearly not an option to say no to. So it was really between basketball and my social life. And I chose basketball.”
“Every day came down to getting my schoolwork done, making sure I got my work done with basketball, and then after that I could be a kid. As long as you did the work first, I could do what I want.”
“But that also came, it wasn’t just my decision, also finding the right friends to be around. I had a great group of friends who knew my goals, who knew what I had to do before I could do anything.”
“They never pressured me into skipping a day to go hang out. They made sure I did what I had to do. Those people are still with me today. It was really important for me to understand that my surroundings were just as important as my decisions.”