Knicks are learning why it's so hard to repeat as champions in the NBA: 'Teams are coming at you'

History was kind to the Knicks last season.

Throw an obstacle in front of them, a number that seemed insurmountable, and they climbed over it with determination. No team had ever overcome a 29-point deficit in an NBA Finals game? Just watch. The franchise had gone 53 years without a title? That wasn’t this group.

So now, when the Knicks regrouped to start their title defense, they were met with this: Eight straight NBA champions have failed to repeat, efforts to defend their title left in ashes. And in the opening weeks of this season, the Knicks have seen what the challenge is and why it's so hard.

Did it take just 48 minutes — an opening-night loss to the rebuilt 76ers after the championship banner was raised to the rafters — for the glow to wear off of the Knicks' championship run and the summer of celebrations that followed?

“Everyone can say it’s early in the season,” Jalen Brunson said after the Knicks lost a third straight game to start the season, before starting to find their way. “We can use that as an excuse but I think the one thing I see is when we get those runs and start to look like the team that we did in the past, we get comfortable. So we have to continue to put our foot on the gas and execute like we did last year. And we’re not going to be the same. That’s just human nature.

“We’re going to get everyone’s best because of last year. Everyone has been telling us what a great job we did, how fun it was, what we did for the city, the constant praise and so we need the opposite.”

'Everybody is fighting to get to the top'

That is the reality the Knicks find themselves in, lessons learned by each of the teams that preceded them in holding the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. Remember the Thunder winning the title in 2025 with an arsenal of young talent and assets that are the envy of every front office, poised to dominate for years? They were knocked out in the Western Conference finals by the Spurs last season. The Thunder are now facing the salary cap realities other teams have lived through, and are already ravaged by injuries this season. The Celtics before them in 2024? The Knicks dethroned them in the second round the following season, and they cast off much of their roster.

But it’s not just the salary cap or injuries. It’s a summer spent with parades and parties, and as Brunson noted, praise that could get in your head if you listen to it.

“I think that's the competitive realm that you're in,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said after they beat the Knicks in the opening week this season. “Everybody is fighting to get to the top, and when you get to the top, you realize that there's both pros and cons to it, and you have to fight to be able to stay there. ...  Once you were there you have to trick yourself as if you've never been there."

The Knicks are a little different from some teams in this way; Madison Square Garden already was a highlight night for most players, stars looking to have their night on Broadway and young players dreaming of making a name for themselves in the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Famous Arena.”

Now add in the chance to knock off the defending champions and the Knicks are under siege on most nights while they try to find their footing.

“Teams are coming at you,” said OG Anunoby, who was part of the Toronto Raptors' 2019 championship team and then the following season saw the defense end in the conference semifinals. “You know you’re the hunted. But it’s still a different season, so you’re still trying to find ways to win games. We had a great team. We didn’t repeat, but we had a really good team.

“[I see it now] for sure. Everyone’s giving us their best shot. That’s good. That’s how you test us. That’s what the regular season is for.”

Nick Nurse, the current Sixers coach, was at the helm of those Toronto teams.

"I think the biggest thing is it's really hard to do once. It's really, really, really hard. A lot of things have got to fall your way, all those things to do once. So have all those things fall your way again? It’s just very difficult. I know we lost Kawhi [Leonard] in Toronto and nobody expected us to be any good at all because of that. … We just went out and did everything the same and played, tried to prepare and play as hard as we could and go for it. … It’s just really hard to keep it going.”

Could the Knicks be different?

The Raptors could point to the defection of Leonard. The Lakers followed with a championship in the bubble during the COVID-shortened season in 2019-20 and then were knocked out in the opening round the next year and out of the playoffs a year later. Milwaukee was one and done in 2021, and then Golden State got one more title in 2022 — after being the last team to repeat in 2018.

Could the Knicks be different? They returned nearly their entire rotation from last season. You could wonder about the contract extensions looming and the effect that could have and consider the consequences of a 3-4 start to the season that has triggered criticism of how the short summer was spent.

“You’re starting all over,” Mike Brown, part of the repeat champions coaching staff in Golden State, told reporters Sunday. “It’s like climbing a mountain. We’re climbing a mountain as a team and we conquer the mountain, then you gotta come back down, take some time off, then you gotta climb another mountain. It’s the same thing. And when you climb that mountain the second time, you’re starting from base camp again."

“I think it’s a tough spot,” Josh Hart said. “It’s kind of like a little conundrum, because obviously you play into mid-June. Then in the summer obviously you’re working out, you’re doing that, but you also are enjoying the fruits of the labor of winning in terms of going to brands, going to appearances. Off the court, it’s kind of boomed for you.

“You’re doing all of that, and that takes a little bit of a wear on you. And then you get into it. So sometimes, the body has to kind of catch up.... But we've got to figure it out."

Eight straight champions have tried and failed. But this Knicks team has embraced historic challenges before. Is this harder than a 29-point deficit or a 53-year drought?

“Last year we took everything one day at a time,” Brunson said. “Obviously, we know what it takes, but just going into this with the same mindset for this journey. Even though it's a new journey, it's a different journey; the approach has to be the same, if not better.”