There have been eight different NBA champions in the last eight years. There hasn’t been a back-to-back winner of the NBA Finals since the Warriors won in 2017 and 2018. Fresh off their first title in 53 years, the Knicks will be looking to buck both trends next June. They’d love to be the team that is able to do so.
Reigning Finals MVP Jalen Brunson discussed a bevy of topics in an interview with Variety published on Monday, including his belief that his Knicks have a strong chance of winning it all for the second straight year.
“Oh, I still have confidence. I will always have confidence in myself and my team,” Brunson said. “Not because we won, because I know the type of character our guys have. I know how hard my team works. I know how hard I work. I know what our mindset is. Our mindset is just to get better every single day. And so even though, yes, we did win this past year, going forward, that literally means nothing.”
While Brunson and his teammates will forever remember ending New York’s title drought, that doesn’t mean they will relax and believe the job is done. They showed as much last year, recovering from their NBA Cup hangover to the tune of a Larry O'Brien trophy.
Knicks know better than anyone how much hard work can pay off
Brunson is especially aware of how hard two of his teammates work. He played two years with Josh Hart and three with Mikal Bridges at Villanova. Brunson won two national championships playing collegiately, one with Hart and both with Bridges.
So the three of them had already proven they could win together, albeit in a different setting. Still, he’s seen how his other teammates worked during the course of the year.
Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t rest on his laurels as one of the best shooting big men ever; he made obvious improvements on the defensive end. More than a decade into his career, Jordan Clarkson did things he’d never done before to ensure Mike Brown would play him, such as crashing the offensive glass and pressuring opponents before they crossed midcourt.
Anyone who watches the Knicks knows OG Anunoby works tirelessly on both ends. He got a chance to show off the fruits of that labor to the world with his Game 4 tip-in, which will forever be on the NBA highlight reel.
Then there’s Brunson, who’s working on his game even with a cast on his surgically repaired left wrist. The fact that he played with that wrist injury during part of the championship run and still dominated through much of it shows the character he has.
This current group of Knicks is easy to love, even if they don't again reach the mountaintop. Repeating isn’t easy, but there’s no reason to doubt that it’s the focus of every member of the team.
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