Jalen Brunson is afraid to open the bag containing his NBA championship because of the panic inside him

Jalen Brunson admits his New York Knicks championship hat is still unwashed and in a bag and now smells like champagne, sweat and cigarettes.

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You'd think a player's NBA championship hat would be one of their prized possessions, but when it has the potential funk that New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson might have, maybe not so much.

The Knicks won their first NBA championship in decades in June, and after all the celebration, Brunson revealed that his championship door is still in a bag.

And the potential horrors inside keep him from opening it.

"Mine hasn't been washed yet," Branson said on a recent episode of his podcast "The Roommate Show" with Josh Hart. It's in the bag and I'm afraid to open it." It smells terrible: champagne, sweat, cigarettes, food, beer, tequila.

It's like the worst cologne notes of all time.

That's a recipe for a strong stench, and that's why you should vacuum it up, let it air out, and wash it off in the unlikely event of a championship (hey, it could happen; your church's softball team could be a wagon next season).

What you don't want to do is put it in a sealed bag like Branson did. Now he has a science fair project in hand.

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Not only does that thing smell bad enough to make your hair fall out, at this point it might grow a small civilization or sprout a set of eyes.

New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson shoots against the San Antonio Spurs during the first half of Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals at Frostbank Center in San Antonio, Texas, June 13, 2026. (Jeff Burke/Images)

I know someone - I swear it wasn't me - who put a sweaty hat in a bag for a while and then put it in his closet.

However, this closet was accessible through the bathroom. Therefore, it maintained the right humidity level so that some kind of mold or fungus or foreign organisms started growing from this hat.

It was a scary performance, and unfortunately, this may be the fate of Jalen Brunson's NBA championship cap.

I hope I'm wrong, but if there's one thing I know, it's the dos and don'ts of Hat Funk.

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