Fresh off ending the Knicks' 53-year championship drought, Jalen Brunson is building a family-run brand advisory firm, and betting that trust built at the kitchen table translates to the boardroom.
Brunson, his mother Sandra, his sister Erica, and childhood friend Connor Cashaw announced the launch of Thirty Third Management Group on Tuesday, a firm designed to manage the NBA star's off-court business and advise a broader roster of athletes, executives, entrepreneurs, and charitable foundations. The name nods to Brunson's draft number, the Dallas Mavericks selected him 33rd overall out of Villanova in 2018, and the venture marks a deliberate shift toward family ownership of a brand portfolio that has only grown since Brunson led New York to its first NBA title in more than half a century.
Sandra Brunson, who has managed her son's off-court business for eight years, will serve as president. Erica Brunson, who joined Jalen's team in 2024, takes the title of director of client services. Cashaw, a former high school teammate at Stevenson High School in Illinois who came aboard in 2025, will lead business development. Legal counsel comes from Mitch Schuster and Jed Ferdinand at the New York law firm Meister Seelig & Schuster, and Focus Financial Partners will handle financial advisory work for Brunson, his family, and the firm itself.
The firm's stated mission centers on brand development, partnership strategy, and business development across professional sports, business, and philanthropy. Thirty Third also plans to prioritize women's sports from the outset, with Erica Brunson leading that effort, though the firm has not yet named specific clients or partnerships in that space.
Brunson himself made clear the venture is personal. Fox Business reported his statement announcing the launch:
"My family has been with me every step of the way, and everything we do is rooted in trust. Thirty Third gives us the chance to take ownership of my off-court business, to build something that reflects who we are, and to do it together."
Erica Brunson offered a broader pitch for the firm's philosophy:
"This firm was born from a belief that the most powerful brands are built on trust, purpose, and genuine human connection. As a family, we've had the privilege of supporting Jalen's growth beyond basketball, and that experience inspired us to create an advisory platform that helps others do the same."
She added that the firm aims to be "a strategic partner that champions both success and significance," with a client list spanning professional athletes, NIL talent, and executives.
The timing is no accident. Brunson's on-court value surged after he led the Knicks to a championship that ended a drought stretching back to 1973. A ticker-tape parade rolled through the Canyon of Heroes in New York City on June 18. By mid-July, the Brunson family appeared together at the ESPY Awards at Lincoln Center, where Jalen's Finals MVP performance was still the talk of the league.
That kind of visibility drives off-court revenue, endorsements, licensing deals, media appearances, and equity stakes, and the Brunsons clearly decided they would rather manage that pipeline themselves than hand it to an outside agency. Sandra Brunson's eight-year track record running Jalen's business affairs gave the family a foundation most athlete-launched firms lack at day one.
The broader NBA business landscape has only reinforced the value of brand control. The recent $12.5 billion Lakers sale lifted franchise valuations across the league, and the rising tide extends to player brands as well. Championship-caliber stars now sit at the center of a commercial ecosystem worth far more than their game checks.
Brunson's path from mid-first-round pick to Finals MVP and now firm founder tracks a familiar arc in professional sports: the player who outperforms his draft slot eventually outgrows the management structure that served him on the way up. The 33rd pick in 2018 is now the foundational client of his own shop.
Family-run management firms in professional sports carry an obvious appeal and an obvious risk. The appeal is loyalty. When your mother is the president and your sister runs client services, the incentives align in ways they rarely do with a large agency skimming percentages. The risk is that family loyalty can paper over gaps in expertise or market reach.
The Brunsons appear to have hedged that risk by bringing in outside legal and financial counsel from established firms. Meister Seelig & Schuster and Focus Financial Partners add institutional weight to a venture that might otherwise look like a family side project.
Still, the firm's early client roster beyond Brunson himself remains unnamed. Whether Thirty Third can attract marquee talent from other sports, or compete with entrenched agencies for NIL deals and endorsement contracts, will determine whether this is a real business or a well-branded family office.
The women's sports angle is worth watching. Erica Brunson's role leading that initiative comes at a moment when women's professional leagues are drawing record investment and viewership. A firm that moves early and builds genuine relationships in that space could carve out a real niche. But the details, specific athletes, specific deals, specific timelines, remain absent from the announcement.
Brunson's on-court credentials, meanwhile, continue to speak for themselves. Even before the championship run, he was carrying heavy loads for a Knicks team that endured heartbreaking late-game losses during the regular season, including a 30-point effort in a one-point defeat to Oklahoma City. The grind of those seasons, and the payoff of a title, gave Brunson a profile that few mid-first-round picks ever achieve.
Championship merchandise alone has become a flashpoint for brand control in New York. A recent cease-and-desist dispute over Knicks merchandise rights underscored just how valuable, and contested, the commercial side of a title run can be. Brunson's decision to formalize his own brand management fits squarely into that environment.
For all the polish of the rollout, several questions remain open. Rick Brunson, who appeared alongside the family at the ESPYs, has no publicly stated role within the firm. Neither does Ali Marks Brunson, Jalen's wife. Whether the firm operates under a new legal entity or evolved from Sandra Brunson's existing management structure is unclear. And the announcement offered no specifics on revenue targets, office locations, or signed clients beyond Jalen himself.
None of that is unusual for a launch-day press release. But investors, potential clients, and competitors will want answers before long.
What is clear is the bet Brunson is making: that a tight-knit family operation, built on years of managing his career from the inside, can scale into something bigger without losing the trust that holds it together. In a sports industry where agents churn through clients and loyalty is a negotiating tactic, that pitch has real appeal, if the Brunsons can deliver on it.
In an era when every athlete with a ring hires a branding consultant, Brunson hired his mother. That says something about where his priorities sit, and the market will decide whether it works.