At 4 of the clock this afternoon, France and Morocco face-off in the first of four World Cup quarterfinal matches. [Harry Caray voice]: Hey! Didja know there’s eight teams left in the World Cup and eight NBA teams — to various degrees — in vogue as the NBA’s likeliest 2026-27 champion? Do you know how hard it is to write in vogue, and not En Vogue?
In Adam Silver’s socialism-for-us, monopoly-for-y’all league, building a championship team is easier than ever, while keeping one together is original
sin. From 1987 to 2018, 32 seasons, only 10 times was that year’s champion not the defending champion. It’s happened eight years in a row since.
Obviously the Knicks will make history again next season, repeating as champions and ending the curse of the one-hit wonders. But if, say, Dolan fires Leon Rose for using his private bathroom and re-hires Steve Mills, and the season goes south . . . which of the usurpers is most likely to usurp? And in what way do they relate to one of the World Cup’s elite eight? Funny you should ask.
PHILAELPHIA 76ers
The Sixers aren’t the same team the Knicks beat back into the Stone Age in May. Paul George, Kelly Oubre and Andre Drummond are out; Jaylen Brown, Anfernee Simons, Labaron Philon, Dean Wade and OAKAAKUYOAK Ariel Hukporti are in. Word is the Sixers are in the running to be LeBron James’ fifth marriage. All My Children’s Erica Kane married eight different men. The Bill Russell of nuptuals.
There seems little doubt if James signs with Philadelphia, he’ll be a positive in whatever role he plays; after last season’s trial run as a third banana with L.A., he could find an even smoother fit with a team that already features a ton of ball-handling and shot creation. Imagine a late-game lineup of James, Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, fighting the Knicks over an epic conference finals.
You may have to imagine it, because it may never happen. Embiid’s availability is no longer the only question mark; he was effectively immobile defending outside the paint in last year’s series. The Sixers can’t trade him, can’t bench him and can’t defend with him. Last year they were 12 wins short of the title. Would Brown and James add enough spark to overcome the twilight of the Process?
WORLD CUP TEAM: ENGLAND
Like the 76ers, the Three Lions did something special in 1966, and while there’re a lotta players there you’ve heard of, if their two best aren’t at the absolute top of their games they’re not winning. Case closed.
DETROIT PISTONS
After losing a Game 7 at home by 31 where their starters shot 3 of 18 from deep and 29% overall, you can’t say the Pistons didn’t understand the assignment. If they wanna level up in the East they need more shooting, more scoring and more shot-creation.
Ask, and ye shall receive John Collins, Isaiah Joe and first-round pick Ebuka Okorie. Collins brings an athleticism to the 4-spot Detroit didn’t have last year, and he’s shot 40% on 3s the past two seasons, a mark Joe’s bested four years running. Okorie is expected to bring ball-handling and dribble penetration to a team in need of both.
Without Jalen Duren signed, sealed and delivered back to Motown, the Pistons can’t be taken seriously as a contender. If Duren does return, the team will be trusting his playoff struggles a year ago were the pangs of a better player being born and not a limited one hitting his head on his ceiling. Cade Cunningham alongside two soaring bigs and two shooters seems a solid plan. For that to happen, Duren needs to be more dove of hope and less of an albatross.
WORLD CUP TEAM: MOROCCO
Both are near water. Neither is a team anyone looks forward to playing. If you could add a world-class scoring talent to what’s already there, they’d climb up the list of contenders. Easier said than done.
BOSTON CELTICS
Ever since the Celtics were sold to their current owner, William Chisholm, they’ve been . . . hmmm. What’s the word I’m looking for?
After they lost to the Knicks in 2025, they let all their centers go and traded away Jrue Holiday. Not four months after Jayson Tatum’s remarkable return from his torn Achilles and not two months since Jaylen Brown completed a career year, Brown was traded for Paul George, who doesn’t run as fast or jump as high or play as well or as often. Brown is water filtered, poured into a glass filled with ice, with a little lemon juice added. George is warm water out of a garden hose.
The buzzword in Beantown this summer’s been “optionality.” Why not “cheap”? All the “options” they’ve taken over the past year-plus point to a team that feels farther away from a title now than 12 months ago — the same feeling there was 12 months ago.
WORLD CUP TEAM: BELGIUM
A fairly recent “golden age” has clearly passed. Doesn’t seem like there’s quite enough now to go all the way, but on their day a side that can get the best of any. He’s longer in the tooth than Tatum, but similar to Jayson’s ability to pull up smooth and launch a looong 3 that splashes, Kevin De Bruyne for years did the same with his passes, whether deep in his own end or leading his side’s attack in the final third. And Mitchell Robinson and Jeremy Doku are both physical marvels in completely different ways, but similar in that they’ll both make you smile.
TORONTO RAPTORS
The best non-Knick in the East plays for the Raptors. Ideally.
Kawhi Leonard is one of only two players in the conference who strikes fear in my Knick repeat hopes. Whatever level LeBron and Kevin Durant occupy as far as modern greatness, Kawhi takes a backseat to none. Or wouldn’t, if only he made the trip a little more often. The combination of Leonard, Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles gives Toronto as strong a defensive trio as there is in the game. And they still have IQ and RJ, and we love IQ and RJ.
There isn’t an option for a small-print font, but if there were this is where it’d go, ‘cuz this is where the devil starts popping up all over the details. The last time Kawhi played as many as 70 games was 10 seasons ago. The last time he played past the second round of the playoffs was the last time he played in Toronto. It feels like the Raptors only chance to play as many as 100 games is if Leonard plays in most of them. What are the chances he can?
WORLD CUP TEAM: ARGENTINA
So long as their thirtysomething implausibly great superstar is playing, they’re a contender. Also, Toronto just traded away a Dick — Gradey — while Argentina’s Enzo Fernandez is a dick. Small world.
INDIANA PACERS
I’ll spare you the lead-in: the Pacers are Norway. There’s some very nice players who don’t get most of the press — Pascal Siakam, Ivica Zubac, Martin Odegaard. Players I love unconditionally and always shall, even though they’re no longer on my teams; take a bow, Obi Toppin and Oscar Bobb.
But it all comes down to one uniquely devastating talent. Erling Haaland has said his dream is to have five touches in a game and five goals, and he just might do it. He is the closest to automatic I’ve ever felt watching a player shoot. There’s no one like him on Earth. Tyrese Haliburton is similar. The combination of size, shooting, unselfishness (sometimes to a selfish extent) and crunch-time appetite. Jalen Brunson has it, too. Not just embracing the brightest spotlight, but outshining it. He’s the East player I fear the most.
SAN ANTONIO SPURS
The defending Western conference champs stumbled punch-drunk and dizzied into the offseason, with OG Anunoby’s hand forever burned in their nightmares. They were undersized outside of and behind Victor Wembanyama. Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed Jr. are about 14 feet and 520 pounds of people the Spurs didn’t have last season. In Tobias Harris they added a legit 4 as well as a back-up for De’Aaron Fox, in case another disappointing playoff finish requires a new scapegoat.
WORLD CUP TEAM: SPAIN
An old power seeks to rise again, led by an astonishingly precocious neophyte.
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
It’s easy to forget, in light of all the genuflecting the press was offering the Spurs during the WCF and NBA Finals, but the Thunder have reason to feel just as good about their chances this year as the last few. The Spurs needed most of seven games to pull away in a series where the Thunder were without Jalen Williams; given how small they looked at times against the Knicks, it’s fair to assume an OG-sized wing who can score 30 in his sleep might have made a difference here and there against San Antonio.
The bill finally came due on their bills, so OKC had to trade some of its vaunted depth away. But they lost no one of consequence, their draft renewed their bounty and next year they’re neither the defending NBA or even Western champs. A little chip on the shoulder goes a long way.
WORLD CUP TEAM: FRANCE
Just incredibly deep and athletic everywhere.
