NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson, of the 2026 championship-winning New York Knicks, kicked off the 52nd season of “Saturday Night Live.”

During Saturday’s hoops-heavy show, Brunson delivered a monologue in which he promised to approach his “SNL” performance with the same strategy he used during Knicks’ NBA Finals games.

“The first three quarters of the show are going to be god-awful,” he said. “The last sketch is going to be amazing.”

The monologue featured “SNL” veteran Kenan Thompson as ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith, invited by Brunson so the player could “get some closure” after Smith had expressed doubts about his abilities.

“I am man enough to admit that I was wrong when the New York Knickerbockers signed you and I did not think that you were the answer,” Thompson’s Smith said. “Nor did I believe that you could deliver the team’s first championship since 1973, when I was only 5 years old.”

Knicks teammates Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns made cameos to portray members of the studio audience chosen to ask questions of the point guard.

“Can you foul out of ‘SNL?’” Towns asked.

In the recorded sketch “High School Musical the New Generation,” Brunson portrayed a new student who wanted to join the school’s basketball team. He was welcomed with a musical number on the court that culminated with a team member portrayed by “SNL” featured player Jeremy Culhane singing that he was about to “take the shot.”

It was at that point that his attempt at scoring was rejected by Brunson, with the ball slamming against his forehead. Each subsequent attempt at a basket by Culhane’s character was met with over-the-top rejection. Soon, Brunson was defeating the team by weaving through defender traffic and scoring easily.

The NBA player concluded by swooping in to steal Culhane’s love interest (played by featured player Veronika Slowikowska) during another musical number, showing that even his singing chops were better than the ones of Culhane’s character. “Yeah, I think I’m going to hook up with this guy,” Slowikowska’s character said of the new student.

Brunson is the fifth NBA star to host the storied sketch comedy show, joining coach Bill Russell and legendary players Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and LeBron James in sharing that status.

He averaged 32.6 points per game in the NBA Finals to help his team win its first championship in 53 years.

Saturday’s show also marked the first “SNL” season for two new featured players, Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter, after it bid farewell to cast member Chloe Fineman and writer Martin Herlihy, who also appeared in a number of sketches.

Fineman landed a role on “Myron Bolitar,” a Netflix drama series based on Harlan Coben’s thriller novels about a former basketball star who reinvents himself as a sports agent. Netflix announced the show started filming in New York City in July.

The musical guest Saturday was Katseye, the K-pop-influenced act composed of six women from around the world but often performing as a quintet and quartet due to hiatuses. The act was put together under a partnership between Geffen Records and South Korea’s HYBE Entertainment, home of BTS.

Katseye performed a pair of songs, “Animal” and “Hootie Frutti,” and appeared as judges in a recorded sketch that spoofed season two of the talent competition TV show “The Debut: Dream Academy.”

“SNL” airs on NBC, a division of NBCUniversal, which is also the parent company of NBC News.