Generally speaking, when New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson takes his shot, he does not miss.

However, when a basketball teammate introduced the 29-year-old to his now-wife Ali Marks Brunson during his freshman year at Illinois’ Adlai E. Stevenson High School, she remarked, “Oh, you’re on JV,” he shared during a December episode of Roommates Show, the podcast he co-hosts with teammate Josh Hart and businessman friend Matt Hillman.

When the future second-round NBA draft pick—now nominated for three ESPY Awards after leading his team to their first NBA championship in 53 years—gently corrected her, he recalled, “She was like, ‘Oh, OK,’ and kind of dismissed me and then walked away for about two years.”

It’s not as if they never connected. “We were friends for a couple of years,” emphasized his bride, who earned her doctorate in physical therapy in 2021. “Then our senior year, we started dating.”

But as she headed to the University of Illinois and he was set to achieve two national championships at Philadelphia’s Villanova University, Ali admitted her reluctance before their relationship began in 2013: “I didn’t want to date. Long distance is hard.”