Jalen Brunson is the King of New York with one goal left to finish

CHARLESTON, S.C.— Josh Hart has established the court-away-from-the-court.

You need to know this.“I’m the Duke of Manhattan,” Hart announced Wednesday, a few minutes after the Knicks had broken up practice at McAlister Field House on the campus of The Citadel.“OG [Anunoby], he can be the Duke of Queens.

Mikal is the Duke of the Bronx.”Presumably, that’ll leave both Brooklyn and Staten Island to the royal Stretch-5-in-waiting, Karl-Anthony Towns, whose acquisition the team was finally allowed to officially announce Wednesday afternoon.“Can’t be Mikal in Brooklyn” Hart laughed.“We stole him from there.”There is one unmistakable ruler in the room, and the rest of the members of his court happily serve at his pleasure.

His name is Jalen Brunson.“He’s the King of New York,” Hart said.In basketball, that’s for certain, and the chasm between Brunson and No.2 may be as wide as the two Southamptons, the one on the South Fork and the one south of London.

But after only three years, his star already burns so bright that he is either 1 or 1A when it comes to all professional athletes in greater New York.That was wonderfully illustrated on the night of July 24, when he walked onto the field at Yankee Stadium, as good a place as any to host the constellation of stars on the field late that afternoon.Jalen Milroe, who within two months would establish himself as the most electric college football player in the land quarterbacking Alabama, was there, and he looked like a wide-eyed kid when he embraced Brunson during batting practice.Francisco Lindor was there, just as he was amping up his case to be a candidate for MVP in the National League, and the two of them hugged, too, and posed arm-in-arm for pictures.Anthony Volpe was waiting with one of his No.

11 jerseys, and he handed that over to Brunson at the same time Brunson gave Volpe his own orange-and-blue 11.Brunson threw out the ceremonial first pitch to a thunderous roar, making his pitch (...