Jalen Brunson's memory of the Knicks' 1999 Finals lineup is pretty much spot on

LAS VEGAS (AP) — It took Jalen Brunson some time to remember the New York Knicks' starting lineup in the 1999 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.

It took him no time to remember who didn't start those games.

“Not Rick Brunson,” he said.

Rick Brunson — a current Knicks assistant, and Jalen Brunson's dad — was on that 1999 Knicks team that fell in five games to the Spurs in the title series. But, as his kid remembered correctly Monday on the eve of a Knicks-Spurs matchup in Las Vegas to decide the NBA Cup, he wasn't anywhere near the starting rotation of Latrell Sprewell, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson, Charlie Ward and either Marcus Camby or Chris Dudley at center.

It took Jalen Brunson, who was a couple months shy of turning 3 when those finals were happening, some time to get the starters right — and he needed a big hint before remembering that Ward was the point guard.

For the record, Rick Brunson played just 9.8 seconds in that series. He closed out the second quarter of Game 3 as a sub for Dudley and racked up no stats. But to be fair, Brunson played in the only game the Knicks won in that series.

The Knicks and Spurs play Tuesday night in the NBA Cup final, the first time they've played for a trophy since the 1999 title series.

Some of Victor Wembanyama's new best friends are coming to the NBA Cup final on Tuesday night.

Vegas, prepare for The Jackals.

About 50 “Jackals” — the new-this-season Spurs' supporter group, an idea that Wembanyama had in a nod to how soccer teams and other clubs in Europe have some rowdy backers at every home game — will be in attendance for the Spurs-Knicks game.

About 20 others were there for the semifinal win over Oklahoma City on Saturday night.

For the first time in nearly a month, the Spurs are about to play back-to-back games in the same state.

San Antonio's last 10 games have been played in Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, California and Nevada. They remained in Las Vegas, obviously, and will play there again in the NBA Cup title game on Tuesday night.

The Spurs are in a stretch where they'll spend 24 days on the road in a 26-day span. They have logged more than 5,000 air miles on these trips.

“We’ve had 10 games in 10 different states consecutively," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “It allows the guys to get together, have time on the road and they get to interact, exchange and have some time away from the families or loved ones — which is always hard. But it also gives you the opportunity to get close with your crew. And this is the first time this crew has gone through some stuff, so it’s been good to have some adversity and hopefully some positives that we can continue to have some carryover with throughout the season.”

No matter what, there will be an NBA Cup champion representing the Dominican Republic. The Knicks have Karl-Anthony Towns; the Spurs have David Jones Garcia.

Towns would obviously prefer the Knicks win, but said the Cup is a celebration of play from around the world — with the Spurs' star from France, Wembanyama, among the many international players involved with this game.

“It’s a celebration for Latin America too, to have so many people on this big stage, especially Dominicans, let alone two of us going out there and doing what we do best,” Towns said. “Yeah, it’s a bunch of fun. I’m super excited that Latin America gets to get represented. Hopefully the show is great.”

Towns was born in New Jersey, went to college in Kentucky and has spent his NBA career in Minnesota and New York. He considers his roots, however, to be the Dominican Republic — his late mother's homeland, and the country he chooses to represent on the international basketball stage.

The previous two Cup finals were both double-digit affairs. The Los Angeles Lakers beat Indiana 123-109 in 2023, and Milwaukee beat Oklahoma City 97-81 last season.

The record for points in a Cup final is 41 by Anthony Davis, then of the Lakers, in 2023.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) shoots the ball near New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges (25) in the second half of an NBA Cup semifinals basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)

New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown speaks with forward Og Anunoby (8) in the first half of an NBA Cup semifinals basketball game against the Orlando Magic, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)

San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson calls to his team in the second half of an NBA Cup semifinals basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)

San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots the ball near Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams (8) in the second half of an NBA Cup semifinals basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The ongoing effort to find a man who walked onto Brown University ’s campus during a busy exam season and shot nearly a dozen students in a crowded lecture hall has raised questions about the school's security systems and the urgency of the investigation itself.

A day after Saturday's mass shooting, officials said a person of interest taken into custody would be released without charges, leaving investigators with little actionable insight from the limited security video they had recovered and scrambling to develop new leads.

Law enforcement officials were still doing the most basic investigative work two days after the shooting that killed two students and wounded nine, canvassing local residences and businesses for security camera footage and looking for physical evidence. That's left students and some Providence residents frustrated at gaps in the university’s security and camera systems that helped allow the shooter to disappear.

“The fact that we’re in such a surveillance state but that wasn’t used correctly at all is just so deeply frustrating,” said Li Ding, a student at the nearby Rhode Island School of Design who dances on a Brown University team.

Ding is among hundreds of students who have signed a petition to increase security at school buildings, saying that officials need to do a better job keeping the campus secure against threats like active shooters.

“I think honestly, the students are doing a more effective job at taking care of each other than the police,” Ding said.

Kristy dosReis, chief public information officer for the Providence Police Department, said that at no point did the investigation stand down even after officials appeared to have a breakthrough in the case, detaining a Wisconsin man who they now believe was not involved.

“The investigation continued as the scenes were still active. Nothing was cleared,” said dosReis.

Police and the FBI on Monday released new video and photographs of a man they believe carried out the attack. The man wore a mask in the footage captured before and after the attack.

FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said a $50,000 reward was being offered for information that would lead to the identification, arrest and conviction of the shooter.

Docks described the investigation, including documenting the trajectory of bullets at the shooting scene, as “painstaking work.”

“We are asking the public to be patient as we continue to run down every lead so we can give victims, survivors, their families and all of you the answers you deserve,” Docks told reporters.

While Brown University is dotted with cameras, there were few in the Barus and Holley building, home of the engineering school that was targeted.

“Reality is, it’s an old building attached to a new one,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters about the lack of cameras nearby.

The lack of campus footage left police seeking tips from the public.

Katherine Baima said U.S. marshals came to her door on Monday, seeking footage from a security camera pointing toward the street.

“This is the first time any of us in my building, as far as I know, had heard from anyone,” Baima said.

Students said the school’s emergency alert system kept them relatively well-informed about the presence of an active shooter. But they were uncertain what to do during a prolonged campus lockdown.

Chiang-Heng Chien, a 32-year-old doctoral student in engineering, hid under desks and turned off the lights after receiving an alert about the shooting at 4:22 p.m. Saturday in a campus lab.

“While I was hiding in the lab, I heard the police yelling outside but my friends and I were debating whether we should open the door, since at that moment the shooter was believed to be (nearby),” he said in a text.

Law enforcement experts say colleges are often at a disadvantage when responding to threats like an active shooter. Their security officers are typically less trained and paid less than in other law enforcement departments. They also don’t always have close partnerships with better-resourced agencies.

Often, funding for campus police departments is not a top priority, even for schools with ample resources, said Terrance Gainer, a former Illinois law enforcement official who later served as the U.S. Senate’s sergeant-at-arms.

“They just aren’t as flush in law enforcement as you would think. They don’t like a lot of uniformed presence, they don’t like a lot of guns around,” said Gainer, who is now a consultant. “Whether it’s Brown or someone else, a key question is, what type of relationship do they have with the local police department?”

At Utah Valley University, where conservative leader Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a shooter on a school building roof last summer, the undersized campus police department never asked neighboring agencies to assist with security at the outdoor Kirk event that attracted thousands, an Associated Press review found.

Providence has an emergency alert system, but it switched from a mobile app to a web-based system in March. The new system requires someone to register online to receive alerts — something not all residents knew.

Emely Vallee, 35, lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Brown with her two young children. She said she received “absolutely nothing” in alerts. She relied instead on texts from friends and the news.

Vallee had expected to be notified through the city’s 311 app, but hadn’t realized that Mayor Brett Smiley phased out the app in March. Smiley said his administration sent out multiple alerts the day of the shooting using the new 311 system and has continued to send them.

Hailey Souza, 23, finished her shift at a smoothie shop just off-campus minutes before the shooting. Everything seemed normal and quiet, Souza said.

But driving home, she saw a boy bleeding on the sidewalk. “Then everyone started running and screaming,” she said. Souza said she saw a bystander rip off his T-shirt to help.

The shop Souza manages, In The Pink, is a block from the engineering building. One of the shooting victims, Ella Cook, was a regular at the store, Souza said. Cook had come in a few days earlier and said her last final was Saturday.

Souza later learned that police came by the store to tell her co-workers about an active shooter. But Souza never received an emergency alert. “Nothing,” she said.

Wieffering, Tau and Slodysko reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi and Matt O’Brien in Providence and Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report.

Visitors pause at a makeshift memorial for the victims of Saturday's shooting, at the Van Wickle Gate at Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team search for evidence near the campus of Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A member of the FBI Evidence Response Team searches for evidence near an ivy-covered wall following the shooting at Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Visitors pause at a makeshift memorial for the victims of Saturday's shooting, at the Van Wickle Gate at Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Pedestrians ask FBI agents, on the sidewalk on Cooke St. for updates, in Providence, R.I., two days after a shooting occurred on Brown University's campus, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)

Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team search for evidence near the campus of Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Community flowers, notes and mementos are placed in a makeshift memorial display in front of Brown University's Van Wickle gates, in Providence, R.I., two days after a shooting took place on Brown University's campus, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)

A community member looks at flowers, notes and mementos in a makeshift memorial display sitting in front of Brown University's Van Wickle gates, in Providence, R.I., two days after a shooting took place on the university's campus, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)