The summer of 2026 in New York City is going to go down as one to remember. And it all got started with the New York Knicks' historic title run.
The guys in orange and blue ending a 53-year championship drought was the perfect precursor to a summer of celebration in the Big Apple. Fans of the Knicks, who famously live and die with their beloved basketball team, were collectively elated.
There's good and bad to everything, though, and New York's winning may have negatively affected more than the NBA's expected television revenue. Comedian Sam Morril spoke recently to The Rich Eisen Show about his comedy, which relies on life's imperfections being relatable, suffering as a result of the Knicks' postseason success.
Morril isn't the only comedian to suffer from sports success
"It hurt my comedy, that Knicks run. Because it's hard to write jokes when everything is great...A lot of comedy comes from irritability and like, you know, 'oh, this is annoying!' But, like, what am I going to be like? 'You ever notice that God is real and everything's cool?' Like, what am I going to write about? I couldn't believe it," Morril explained on the show.
The Rich Eisen Show's Chris Brockman said his wife — actress, writer, comedian, and sports host Sarah Tiana — has said the same. Tiana, one of several hosts of Women's Sports Now on ESPN, supports Atlanta sports teams. She's very likely not a fan of the Knicks, like Morril. However, she's certainly qualified to speak on the matter in general.
Knicks' championship dominance also hurt the NBA's salary cap
Jokes aside, New York's dominance throughout the 2026 postseason did legitimately hurt the league's overall playoff revenue. The Knicks did fall down 2-1 in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks, eventually winning what wound up being a six-game series.
However, the pair of sweeps they followed that up with — against the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers — got them to the NBA Finals just eight games later. That doesn't make for very profitable business for the league and its broadcast partners.
The 2026 NBA Playoffs did feature five Game 7s, which the league itself said ties its all-time record. The eventual championship-winning team in the Knicks, however, didn't contribute to that number at all. The result was a "failure" by the league to hit their expected marks for postseason revenue. That directly lowered the salary cap for the 2027 season.
As teams battle the second apron, and the penalties associated with surpassing it, they can simply thank the Knicks for making things just a bit tougher.
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