It has been widely documented that the New York Knicks' hunt for an NBA Championship has been ongoing for several decades. More than five, in case you weren't aware.
But if any braintrust is equipped to change that, it might just be their current front office. They don't receive nearly enough credit for building this Knicks team all the way up from the 19-win roster they inherited.
Brad Stevens' 2025-26 Executive of the Year victory was just the latest example. Leon Rose and William Wesley's group took down the Celtics in the playoffs last season. They won't have the chance to play them again, because the 76ers pulled off a 3-1 comeback in the first round. Even though Stevens got the hardware, the Knicks are making light work of Philadelphia while Boston's fans watch from home.
New York needs a championship ring to make it count, and for Rose and Wesley to match Stevens' title ring. But, at least for this year, it's clear which executive got the last laugh.
Knicks are proving their front office remains the NBA's most underrated
For years, the franchise was defined by all of the moves that it didn't make. The coverage went as far as to result in an NBA Mandela Effect; the Knicks are often chided for passing on Stephen Curry in the draft, who they never had a chance to select.
Any blunders in more recent years, such as passing up on the chance to draft Tyrese Haliburton in 2020 or failing to land Donovan Mitchell in a 2022 trade with the Utah Jazz, only gave New York's doubters more fuel.
Every front office makes mistakes. But the 53rd time your friend is late for coffee is different than the first, or second.
Even as the Knicks have risen through the NBA's ranks of contention, their trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns were widely questioned. Some of those moves, especially the one for Bridges, are still questioned, regardless of what kind of performances he delivers in the postseason.
Building a championship roster is hard. Building a championship roster in New York City is harder. Building the Knicks, in particular, up into a champion, is even harder.
Given what the NBA landscape has had to say about Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and several other key Knicks in recent years, it should be downright impossible for New York to win anything of significance given their roster.
But these Knicks seem to have a real chance. They are genuinely playing some of the best basketball we've seen in the play-by-play era, by the numbers. They've got a long way to go until they even make the NBA Finals, forget win them. If they pull it off, though, teams across the league will want to be just like them.
That'd be an ironic twist after six years of fans, and even some former players, determining that the hiring of Rose and Wesley gave the team no chance.
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