The New York Knicks are the 2026 NBA Champions. The confetti has been cleared from the streets in the heart of New York City, and the other 29 teams in the NBA have already turned their sights on the upcoming 2026-27 NBA season with newfound hope that they themselves can reach the mountaintop of NBA basketball. While all teams have a sense of hope as one year ends and another one fast approaches, the Utah Jazz find themselves particularly anxious to compete again after nearly half a decade of rebuilding.
With the arrival of the highly touted 6-foot-6 guard, Darryn Peterson, the Utah Jazz are as set up as anyone to compete for NBA hardware in the near future. So, what are some lessons that Jazz fans should learn from the Knicks as they look to build this team in a manner that can bring the Larry O’Brien trophy to the beehive state for the first time?
You will not win if you do not love basketball
The New York Knicks were not a team composed of elite-level athletes and top draft picks. Karl-Anthony Towns was the highest draft pick of the bunch, but even he was traded away from the team that drafted him, in large part because of his athletic weaknesses. Jalen Brunson, the eventual MVP of the Finals, was drafted as an early second-round pick when the Dallas Mavericks chose him 33rd overall in the 2018 draft. Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Jose Alvarado, etc., did not become NBA champions because they have always jumped higher or run faster than their opponents. What these players share isn’t elite athleticism—it’s an obsession with basketball. They’ve persevered through doubt, injuries, and adversity because they genuinely love competing. You cannot win in the NBA if you do not love winning and love basketball more than any other aspect of being an NBA player. No matter how talented the Jazz roster may appear, if players love the status of the NBA more than being a professional basketball player, they will not succeed. That is part of what makes this young Jazz roster so enticing. Keyonte George has bought into this team and into basketball as much as anyone I have ever seen wear a Utah Jazz uniform. Darryn Peterson overcame false media narratives and health scares before being drafted by the Jazz this past week. He even recently had the late, great Kobe Bryant tattooed on his shoulder as a reminder of what he aspires to become. The Jazz are loading up on these young pieces who absolutely eat, sleep, and breathe basketball. That above all else matters most.
You cannot build a championship team in a day
Excitement for Jazz fans is understandably through the roof right now. The prospect of adding a talent like Darryn Peterson to this already exciting young core is truly enough to give any Jazz fan chills. That being said, it is unfair to expect the Jazz to compete for championships from year one. Young teams need to learn how to win. In recent years, we have seen young teams like the OKC Thunder and San Antonio Spurs blow preseason expectations out of the water and appear “ahead of schedule” before falling short of the ultimate goal of a championship. The Thunder lost in the 2024 Western Conference Semi-Final against the Dallas Mavericks. Even San Antonio’s meteoric rise ultimately ended with a hard lesson against a veteran Knicks team. Excitement should be at an all-time high for Jazz fans, but this team will likely take its bumps and bruises as they learn how to show up every night to win basketball games. There is a solid chance that we could even see significant roster pieces move on to other teams before reaching the ultimate goal of hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy. It is extremely rare for young teams to win on their first go. We are entering a golden era of Jazz basketball, but eras are built on battle scars.
The Utah Jazz can ACTUALLY win a championship
Too often, Jazz fans fall victim to an inferiority complex that we simply will never win anything in Utah and that the league will never “allow” us to win anything. We have had a lot of really promising teams come extremely close to winning that Finals trophy, only to run into an alpha like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or Tim Duncan. More recently, we have seen promising teams run stale and lose their luster. I can relate to Jazz fans who have felt jaded and, at times, hopeless about this franchise ever winning a ring. I can relate to Jazz fans who have seen all-star-level talent like Gordon Hayward or Donovan Mitchell walk out the door after years of falling short. My message to any Jazz fan reading this is to BELIEVE. The last half-decade of Utah Jazz basketball is not the norm; in fact, our franchise holds the sixth-best winning percentage in NBA history. We are headed back to the very top of premier, high-level basketball. The reward for the last four years of Jazz basketball is that we now have an apex predator-type prospect to pair with other premier prospects. We have the player development, coaching, and front-office personnel to take us to heights we have never reached before. We have an ownership group that has repeatedly stated they will do everything in their power to bring a championship to this state. So Jazz fans, it is time to take these people at their word and start believing again. The NBA just crowned its 8th different champion in 8 years, and the league has never been more open than it is today. The Utah Jazz are not chasing an impossible dream; they are building towards an opportunity that is there for the taking. For the first time in a long time, Jazz fans have every reason to believe that opportunity is real.
