The Knicks didn’t wait long to make the message clear after winning the first championship in 53 years: one title is not enough.
That might sound ambitious in any era, but it’s especially notable in a league where the last eight champions failed to repeat. Even some of the great teams - the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, and Golden State Warriors - never managed to stack back-to-back rings. Still, this group has shown plenty of stubbornness, from Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns down through the rotation.
Two of the louder voices lately have been Tyler Kolek and Josh Hart.
Kolek got the full hometown-hero treatment at the House of Sports basketball youth camp, where young Knicks fans swarmed the 25-year-old champion. Even with all that attention, his response was simple and direct: “We're not satisfied with just one,” Kolek told the youth camp, according to Jonathan Macri from Knicks Film School.
Hart delivered a similar point of view at the U.S. Open, but with a sharper edge. He said the outside world isn’t picking the Knicks to repeat, and he’s treating that as motivation.
“I don't think we have a big target because I don't think anyone is picking us to win again,” Hart said at the U.S. Open.
“We're using it as fuel. We're still the hunters.
We're not satisfied with one”
That mindset isn’t just talk, either. DraftKings currently has the Knicks tied for only the third-best odds to win the title this season. They sit behind the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder, and are level with a reworked Philadelphia 76ers team that added Jaylen Brown and LeBron James.
Those kinds of additions bring their own growing pains, and there’s no guarantee that group can clear the same hurdle that has haunted Philadelphia during Joel Embiid’s tenure.
In a way, this feels familiar for the Knicks. Last postseason, plenty of people believed they were good enough to get out of the East, but questions lingered about what would happen against OKC or the Spurs. They answered emphatically, ripping off 13 straight postseason wins and pulling off two separate 20-point comebacks on the way to the title.
The financial side makes repeating even tougher now. The second apron has already made it harder for teams to stay together, and the Knicks were one of the victims of that reality when they lost Robinson.
Even so, the attitude that carried them to the championship is still intact. And for a team already talking like it has unfinished business, that matters.
In Other News...
Knicks Just Set Up A Sneaky Camp Battle For One Roster Spot
The Knicks kept their offseason roster churn rolling by adding another veteran big man in Drew Eubanks on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract and bringing in Liam Robbins on an Exhibit 10 deal. The flurry did not stop there, either, as the team also signed six more players - Jaden Akins, Nick Jourdain, Mitch Mascari, Toby Okani, Igor Milicic and Paul Zilinskas - to Exhibit 10 contracts before waiving them, a familiar mechanism that can still help direct talent toward Westchester and create a little extra organizational depth.
For New York, the real interest is less about the paperwork than the camp competition it sets up on the back end of the roster. Eubanks gives the Knicks another experienced frontcourt name to evaluate, while Robbins joins the mix as a developmental big who could stick around the system in some form, and the group of waived signees now has a path to work with Westchester and chase bonus money along the way. It is the kind of late-summer roster maneuvering that often looks routine on the surface but can determine which prospects stay in the building when camp gets serious. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Still Have One Roster Decision Nets Fans Will Notice
The Knicks have been busy filling out the margins of their roster, reaching contract agreements with John Konchar and Drew Eubanks while keeping a few more veteran options on the board as training camp approaches. The front office is also working through its two-way picture, with Tyler Nickel widely expected to take one of the open slots and Kevin McCullar Jr. still in the mix as New York looks to round out a preseason group that already has a handful of moving parts.
Gabe Vincent is among the names the Knicks remain in touch with, and the same goes for a couple of big men who could add depth if the fit and timing line up. For a team that has spent much of the offseason fine-tuning the edges of the roster, the next decision or two could matter more than usual, especially with the Nets making their own headline-grabbing additions across town and the New York rivalry carrying its usual extra weight. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Just Put Their Final Frontcourt Spot In Play
The Knicks are still sorting out the back end of their frontcourt, and Drew Eubanks is now in the mix. New York brought in the veteran center on a non-guaranteed contract, giving him a chance to win a roster spot in training camp while the team continues to shore up depth behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond.
With room for one more veteran minimum deal, the Knicks appear to have a clear opening for a third center if Eubanks can hold up his end of the competition. He brings NBA experience from multiple stops, and for a club trying to cover itself across a long season, that kind of low-cost insurance can matter more than it looks on paper. [Read more 🡒]