A panel of ESPN NBA insiders just did something that should make the New York Knicks and their fans incredibly, gloriously happy. They predicted that the Association will crown a new champion for the eighth consecutive year.
This is excellent news for the Orange and Blue, who in case you haven’t heard, are not one of the league’s previous seven title-toters. The Knicks are, however, entering this season fresh off their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000, and facing borderline, if not outright, championship-or-bust expectations from both fans and media members.
Now, by picking “the field” against the past seven champions, ESPN’s 26-person panel isn’t predicting New York will hoist its third championship banner into the rafters. But when the Oklahoma City Thunder exist, the results are at least a breath of fresh air.
The ESPN poll is actually a pretty big deal
Of the 26 insiders who answered ESPN’s poll, 15 believe the Association will have its eighth consecutive new title-holder. That comes out to about 57.7 percent of respondents, which doesn’t seem like much.
Remember, though, this isn’t an Oklahoma City-or-the-field situation. Participants on weighing the chances of seven recent champions. That is nearly one-quarter of the entire league. Not only that, but it’s a subset still featuring bonafide title hopefuls.
The past seven champions are the Thunder (2025), Boston Celtics (2024), Denver Nuggets (2023), Golden State Warriors (2022), Milwaukee Bucks (2021), Los Angeles Lakers (2020), and Toronto Raptors (2019). Of this group, only the Celtics (no Jayson Tatum) and Raptors (*gestures wildly toward their roster) enter the 2025-26 campaign with very little title equity.
You can quibble over where teams like the Warriors and Bucks belong in the pecking order. So much must go right for either one to peak. But they both remain threats to contend for top-four playoff seeds.
The Knicks still have their work cut out for them
Even if we assume ESPN’s experts end up being correct, the Knicks face an uphill battle. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, and Los Angeles Clippers are just a handful of the teams who’d still be in the running while accounting for these parameters.
We’d also be remiss not to mention that the Thunder are built to buck this trend. They are the second-youngest title team of the past 50 years, as ESPN’s Tim Bontemps noted in the poll. They’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
Still, the Knicks continue to be cited as viable threats to win it all even when framing their chances outside historical trends. Blake Griffin just predicted that they’ll make the 2026 NBA Finals. Another ESPN analyst recently called Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns the best duo in the East. The Knicks are also one of five squads projected to win over 53 games next season, according to multiple over/under totals. Some have also pegged them as clear favorites to win the East.
So yeah, fans should be rooting for ESPN’s cadre of insiders to be correct about the larger championship picture. The cooler thing, though, is that the Knicks have a genuine title case at all.