No Vampire Diaries fan was more excited to see Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley hanging out courtside at a Knicks game than point guard Jalen Brunson. Turns out he’s a huge fan of the vampire drama too and I love how he reacted when Dobrev attended a game. The athlete got to live out every fan’s dream and it’s all thanks to his friendship with Wesley.
The actor joined Alex Cooper to dish about his upcoming projects, including a reunion with Dobrev, and his wildest fan encounter, which features a perm bowl. While on an episode of her Call Her Daddy podcast, he decided to call out his friend:
I've been going to Knicks games for years and I'm friends with Jalen Brunson. He's a good buddy of mine and I called Nina. I said, ‘Nina, you got to go to a Knicks game with me and I know they would love to have you.’ And Jalen. I'm going to call him out, I don't care. He’s my homie, I love him. He's a huge Vampire Diaries fan. Him and his wife are huge Vampire Diaries fans. So I was like, ‘I gotta bring Nina to a Knicks game, because Jalen is gonna love this.'
The athlete is truly living the fan dream as he previously got to have a superfan moment at Mariska Hargitay’s play. The Knicks superstar has repeatedly expressed his desire to cameo on Law & Order: SVU. And now, he gets to add Dobrev to the list of stars he’s got to meet. I wonder if Brunson shipped Stelena? That’s the epic pairing of Dobrev’s Elena and Wesley’s Stefan, two-thirds of the show’s central love triangle.
He’s not the only famous fan of the vampire series, of course. Kylie Jenner recently binged the vampire series, and even got a response from Ian Somerhalder (the last piece of the love triangle) who shared his love for his costar Wesley. The two run a bourbon company, Brother’s Bond, together. Maybe Wesley can introduce Brunson to his smoldering costar next. Given his reaction to Dobrev, I can’t help wondering how he’d react to meeting Damon Salvatore. As Wesley put it:
So I texted him right before the game. I was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, I'm bringing Elena to the game.’ And he's like, ‘No way.’ And it's so funny ‘cause that game was like a blowout. They blew away. I forget who they were playing, but I think they won by like 50 points, which is unheard of. And I was like, ‘Jalen's doing this for Elena, isn't he?’ I know he is.
I bet Brunson will be watching the upcoming Hulu series reuniting Dobrev and Wesley, You Deserve To Know. The series is based on a novel by Aggie Blum Thompson. Not much has been announced about the project, though we know the costars decided to do something with “very different vibes than Stelena.” Wesley reveals in the interview that Dobrev will be playing a woman whose husband is murdered, and he will be playing the prime suspect.
Rest assured Stelena fans, he loves the pairing too. He explains, “the Stefan and Elena thing is so iconic and so perfect, and in a weird way we don’t want to have a comparison.” And the iconic pairing’s best moments can be rewatched with a Peacock subscription.
Since the show ended, Wesley has kept busy between attending Vampire Diaries conventions, playing a younger James T. Kirk, and has already landed his first post Star Trek gig. He even has a new vamp TV show in the works with Hulu, though Stefan fans may be disappointed to learn that he won’t be portraying a vampire (as far as we know) and is signed on to be an executive producer.
But that doesn't mean we can't have Brunson level energy about the two reuniting for a new project. I can't wait to check it out!
