Heading into a Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers, oddsmakers had the Boston Celtics as favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference.
With the media so sure that this New York squad didn't have the personnel, coach, or resilience to produce legitimate playoff success, fans nationwide reasonably began to feel the same way. The Knicks started the season with 9-1 championship odds according to sportsbooks, but fell to 18-1 ahead of their first round series with the Atlanta Hawks.
It's not your fault that you didn't know how good the Knicks could be – truly. Realistically, how was anyone supposed to know?
Knicks emerged from the deep, dark shadows as a surprise contender
The Boston Celtics got Jayson Tatum back on the court. The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired James Harden. And the #1-seeded Detroit Pistons dominated them all season long.
Going into the 2026 NBA Playoffs, these Knicks hadn't proven that they were a winning group. Or that they could handle real adversity.
They won the NBA Cup Championship, following it up with a 2-9 stretch that included a home loss to a tanking Dallas Mavericks squad. Even just a taste of success left them with a sense of entitlement, according to Mikal Bridges, that affected their play.
It's not like they followed that stretch up with a nine-game winning streak, right?
Oh, wait. Hold on.
Well, at least it's not like the New York Knicks had the NBA's best pick-and-roll duo from February 1 and on, right? Or one of the league's five-best defenses in that same stretch?
Wait, really?
From Christmas and on, they ranked in the top five in efficiency on both ends of the court?
They did. And that wasn't enough to overcome the challenges that the rest of the conference could present them with in the postseason: until it was.
Knicks' 18-1 odds to win the East were always a very, very funny joke
They lost all four matchups to the Celtics in last year's regular season before defeating them in six games in the 2025 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. Why would these Knicks be able to make that happen again with this year's Pistons?
They ended up not having to play Detroit or Boston, because neither team advanced far enough to match up with them. They re-evaluated seemingly everything about their offense, making sweeping changes that carried them to three straight victories – and into the second round.
Several national experts picked the 76ers to win the series, explaining why the Knicks' luck was set to run out. Their shooting prowess in the first round was analyzed by experts as the result of luck.
The evidence was piling up, game by game, in front of the world. It wasn't enough to change their prior evaluations of this Knicks squad.
Philadelphia didn't win a single contest. They played four road games, including two in the City of Brotherly Love, and lost them all. The Knicks exacted the same punishment on the Cavaliers, for daring to challenge them.
Despite all signals coming up orange and blue throughout the end of the regular season, it wasn't enough to believe in them. Now, Mike Brown's group is in the NBA Finals. It's not your fault if you didn't see it coming. There's still time to start believing now.
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