The NBA star previously called the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” actress his favorite celebrity Knicks fan.

Jalen Brunson gets a standing ovation at Mariska Hargitay’s play after announcing his SVU dream

The NBA star previously called the "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" actress his favorite celebrity Knicks fan.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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June 27, 2026 3:51 p.m. ET

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Jalen Brunson and Mariska Hargitay in New York City on June 13. Credit:

John Nacion/WireImage

- Jalen Brunson attended Mariska Hargitay's play *Every Brilliant Thing* in New York City on Friday.

- The *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* actress held up Brunson's jersey during the play.

- PEOPLE reported that the crowd gave Brunson a standing ovation during the performance.

New York City's greatest friendship continues to thrive.

Jalen Brunson showed up to support his friend Mariska Hargitay at Friday night's performance of *Every Brilliant Thing* at Broadway's Hudson Theatre.

Hargitay also tailored the evening's performance by incorporating a reference to Brunson's recent victory in the NBA Finals with the New York Knicks. The one-person show consists of a narrator discussing a list of "brilliant" things that make life worthwhile. At one point, Hargitay's protagonist pulls items out of a box, and for Friday's show, she whipped out Brunson's Knicks jersey as she said, "No. 555,555: Knicks in Five" (per PEOPLE).

The point guard, who was sitting in the center orchestra section of the theater, received a standing ovation from the adoring crowd in the theater.

Jalen Brunson and Mariska Hargitay backstage at 'Every Brilliant Thing' on Broadway in New York City on June 26.

Bruce Glikas/WireImage

Brunson and his wife, Ali Marks, later went backstage to chat with Hargitay and her husband, Peter Hermann.

"It was so sweet," a source told PEOPLE. "He was congratulating her and telling her how much he loved the show. She was so thrilled he was there. You could see how much admiration they have for one another.”

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni in New York City on June 8.

Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty

Brunson is a longtime admirer of Hargitay's work on *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*, and announced that he wants to guest on the crime series after winning the Knicks' first championship since 1973.

A longtime Knicks fan, Hargitay previously pulled out Brunson's jersey during a performance on the same night as the team's final home game of the postseason — which she ran to on foot as soon as her show ended that evening.

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"I took four minutes off the running time of my show, and I knew the traffic would be crazy, so I sprinted from the Hudson Theater on 44th and 6th to MSG,” she said at the time. "But I knew everything was going to be alright, because I was wearing my Jalen Brunson Kobe 5 Protos that Jalen gave me a few months ago. But I'm not gonna lie, the 10-block sprint after a 2-show day was no joke."

Despite fervent fandom from Spike Lee, Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller, and many more, Brunson cited Hargitay as his favorite celebrity Knicks fan. "My number one, love her to death, she knows it… Mariska Hargitay," he said on *The Richard Jefferson Show*.

Mariska Hargitay and Jalen Brunson in New York City on Feb. 8, 2024.

Michael Simon/Shutterstock

The athlete also expressed his love for *SVU* on his own podcast. "I've always loved that show,” Brunson said on his *Roommates Show* podcast in 2025. "I've never been super super starstruck. I saw [Hargitay] and I was like, 'Oh, s---.' The first time we met, it was awesome. We talked and everything."

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Brunson and Marks later supported Hargitay at the premiere of her documentary *My Mom Jayne* last year, and the actress attended the Knicks' victory parade earlier this month, where she shared her two cents about what makes the point guard a great New York athlete.

"I think that Jalen embodies the heart, the grit, and the fight of this city," she said in a video posted by the NBA. "And it is so beyond profound, his unification quality. The way he's unified all of us is so extraordinary."

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