Christopher Meloni responds to Jalen Brunson’s Law & Order: SVU casting dream after Knicks championship
Brunson cited an appearance on the police procedural as his next career goal after winning the NBA Finals with the New York Knicks.
Jalen Brunson wants to go on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — and he has the support of one key alum of the show.
Christopher Meloni, who played Elliot Stabler on the first 12 seasons of the crime procedural before receiving his own spinoff with Law & Order: Organized Crime, expressed his approval for the New York Knicks star to guest on the show.
When TMZ asked if he thinks Brunson has what it takes to appear on the show, Meloni responded, “Absolutely. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but he’s a world champion. He can do whatever the hell he wants.”
Meloni added, “He’s got the force of will.”
Brunson voiced his desire to appear on the crime show after leading the Knicks to their first NBA championship since 1973. When asked what he wants to do next, the point guard responded, “Try to go to SVU.”
Meloni isn’t the only SVU star to vouch for Brunson. Mariska Hargitay, who has starred on the show for 27 seasons, is an outspoken Knicks fan and has supported the team for many years. At the team’s victory parade on Thursday, the actress shared her perspective on what makes Brunson 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 shared by the NBA. “And it is so beyond profound, his unification quality. The way he’s unified all of us is so extraordinary.”
She added, “To be here with him [and] his family, and to be among them, is just the most extraordinary feeling I think I’ve ever had.”
Hargitay made headlines when she attended Game 4 of the Finals — which the Knicks won, pulling off a miraculous comeback — after wearing a Knicks jersey on a Broadway stage and running on foot from her one-person play Every Brilliant Thing to Madison Square Garden.
“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. “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.”
She added, “I love my husband, and our wedding night was great and all, but I think it might have been the greatest night of my life.”
Brunson said that Hargitay is his favorite celebrity Knicks fan. “My number one, love her to death, she knows it… Mariska Hargitay,” he said on The Richard Jefferson Show.
He also noted his affection for SVU on his own podcast. “I’ve always loved that show,” Brunson said on his Roommates Show podcast last year. “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.”
