Shocker: The New York Knicks are your NBA champions.
Proper: The New York Knicks are being disrespected as they always have been.
Not even five seconds after the final buzzer sounded inside that random arena in San Antonio, with the Knicks—organization and fans alike—still in disbelief of what had just happened, haters and doubters were already at it.
In the economy we live in, however, that was to be expected. Ask Terry. Anyway, early projections for the 2026-27 NBA season are already available, and
nobody outside of NYC and its surroundings seems to remember a damn thing about the historic moment they just witnessed.
And obviously, the Knicks are not viewed as the favorites to repeat next season, even if their oldest players will be 31 next season, their core of the team has been together for four years, and well, they won the freaking championship going on an imposing 16-2 run.
Sportsbooks such as FanDuel have placed the Knicks fourth in early odds for the 2027 championship, trailing three teams: the losing San Antonio Spurs, the double-loser Oklahoma City Thunder—both atop the board as co-favorites at +250—and the don’t-know-how-they-will-look-in-a-week Boston Celtics, at +600.
New York checks in behind them at +750, a hellaciouslly good distance ahead of joint-fifth-favorites Denver and Detroit, both at +2500.
Has any franchise repeated as champion since the 2017-18 Dubs? Nope. Has any team even won two titles in the last eight seasons? No.
Does that matter at all? Not to me! Let the (under)dogs out!
