A young NBA star asked Jalen Brunson about winning. His answer was about failure

This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.

With the New York Knicks one win away from a championship, Jalen Brunson was fielding questions from reporters when a voice cut through the crowd.

“Hey Jalen, Kon from Charlotte.”

As in Kon Knueppel, one of the NBA’s best young players for the Charlotte Hornets.

He had just seen a stat that showed Brunson was on the verge of joining a small group of players who have won a high school state championship, an NCAA title, the Naismith College Player of the Year Award, an NBA championship and NBA Finals MVP.

For Knueppel, this sparked a genuine question: He wanted to know what Brunson believed were the key attributes of a winning player. And because he was serving as the NBA’s player correspondent that day, he had the chance to ask him.

Brunson’s answer?

“I think the one thing that stays constant with all that is I’ve always told myself and always been taught by my parents to never be afraid to fail.”

By working hard in the offseason, Brunson explained, the big moments feel less intimidating.

“If you do fail,” Brunson said, “you’re going to learn anyway.”

With his response, Brunson captured an idea that Manu Kapur, author of “Productive Failure: Unlocking Deeper Learning Through the Science of Failing,” has spent years working to understand: Why does embracing failure give people an edge?

For years, Kapur has argued that failure deserves a more nuanced reputation. While most people instinctively avoid mistakes, researchers who study learning have found that certain kinds of failure can actually accelerate growth.

“The first thing is understanding that not all failures are the same,” Kapur said. “We’re not saying all failure is good. We’re talking about a particular kind of failure that comes from attempting something beyond your current capabilities.”

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In other words, there is a difference between failure born from carelessness and failure that comes from stretching yourself.

Missing a shot because you failed to prepare is one thing. Missing a shot because you’re attempting a skill or technique you haven’t yet mastered is another. The latter, Kapur argues, is essential to improvement.

“Failure, initially, when you’re trying to grow, is good because in that way, you learn better, you develop better, so that failure when it matters — like a high stakes game, or exam, or performance — is reduced,” he said. “So you use failure early to fight failure later.”

The idea is rooted in how the brain responds to struggle.

When people attempt something difficult and fall short, multiple brain systems activate at once. Cognition, emotion and, in sports, motor systems all become engaged. The learner in the situation becomes aware of the gap between what they can do and what they can not do.

That gap may be the most important part.

If a player attempts a new move, fails and then receives directions from a coach, the lesson lands differently. The player can compare the failed attempt with the “expert solution,” creating a much deeper understanding of what was missing in the first place.

“The productive part of failure comes after the struggle,” Kapur said. “You try something, it doesn’t work, your interest in finding out how to make it work rises and then you’re shown a better way.”

Kapur said this can even increase attention and motivation, because failure often produces frustration which, in the right environment, can sharpen focus.

People often want to know why, which can make them more engaged in finding an answer. Those emotions become “powerful drivers of learning,” Kapur said, because struggle signals that something important is happening and directs our brain’s attention toward solving the problem.

Of course, no coach wants mistakes in a championship game, just as no surgeon wants a failed operation and no teacher wants students to perform poorly on a test.

Productive failure is not about embracing errors when the stakes are high. It’s about creating opportunities to fail when the stakes are low enough to learn from them, like Brunson putting himself in uncomfortable situations during the offseason.

As Knueppel listened to Brunson’s response, he thought about the times he’s watched him play with that exact demeanor in bigger moments, unafraid of the potential for a mistake.

“He’s not afraid to be like, ‘I’m gonna go make a play. I’m gonna make an aggressive play. And if I make a mistake, it’s gonna be an aggressive mistake,’” Knueppel said.

“He’s not afraid to lose,” Knueppel added. “And to win you can’t be afraid to lose.”

Knueppel appreciated Brunson’s response to his question, he said, because it mirrored experience from his own career.

In high school, Knueppel’s team lost its final game before the state tournament three years in a row, to the same team. His senior year, his team finally beat that opponent in the state championship.

He remembers the only difference was that during his final year, he was not afraid to be bold.

“I was thinking, ‘I’m not gonna play this game not to lose,” Knueppel said, “‘I’m gonna play to win.’”

That whole year, he said, he was bolder in practice and trusted himself more. He took risks while maintaining a consistent attitude and demeanor, something he admires about Brunson and now tries to emulate in the NBA. The same way he strives to mirror the confidence Brunson gets from his work and preparation.