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The New York Knicks are trying to accomplish one of the hardest things in American professional sports - win back-to-back NBA titles. NPR's Becky Sullivan reports.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: The hottest ticket in New York last night wasn't a pop concert or a Broadway show. It was the Knicks, of course. Before tip-off of the team's regular-season home opener, the cheapest available resale ticket was going for about 2,000 bucks. Lifelong fan Amanda Costello wasn't going to miss it.
AMANDA COSTELLO: No matter what. It was kind of one of those things where, like, do we do a babymoon or do we go ahead and do home opener? And it's like, home opener. It's priceless.
SULLIVAN: Last summer's playoff run by the Knicks was a magical moment here in New York. Streets turned into giant outdoor watch parties. The Knicks won in five, their first title in more than 50 years. For lifelong die-hards, it was a summer to remember forever - Costello and her husband even more than most.
COSTELLO: My husband and I - our first date was a Knicks game back in 2010. Ironically, I just found out I'm pregnant, and it is a championship baby. So I'm due in March, and if you do the nine months back, it turns out to be June.
SULLIVAN: Now the new season is here. Before the game, the Knicks held a ceremony to raise the championship banner here in Madison Square Garden.
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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Let's go, Knicks. Let's go, Knicks.
SULLIVAN: As he thanked fans for their support, point guard Jalen Brunson made the team's aspirations for this year clear.
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JALEN BRUNSON: The joy that this city had this summer - we would love to replicate that again.
(CHEERING)
SULLIVAN: It's been an era of parity in the NBA. The Knicks were the eighth different team to win a title over the last eight seasons. But now that they're the defending champs, going back-to-back feels daunting. Here are Knicks fans Shah Tehrany and Tomer Ahituv.
SHAH TEHRANY: I think we got a good shot. I think it's one of the hardest things to do in the NBA. But I think we can do it.
TOMER AHITUV: I think it should be hard. A lot of teams got better, so it's another test.
TEHRANY: Really got better.
AHITUV: It's another test. You should have to get better to do it again.
TEHRANY: Yeah.
SULLIVAN: The last team to win two in a row was the Golden State Warriors. In 2017 and 2018. Mike Brown was an assistant coach with that squad. Now he's the head coach of the Knicks. And he says nothing is guaranteed in today's NBA.
MIKE BROWN: It was an amazing thing that we accomplished last year, a ton of fun. But we have to understand that this is a new season, a new team, although the core is the same. And we're going to face new challenges.
SULLIVAN: Those Warriors were the last true dynasty in the NBA. They and the Cleveland Cavaliers clashed in the finals four years in a row. A lot of fans saw that then as a crisis of parity. Now the opposite is happening. In the NBA these days, it's near impossible to keep a core of a successful team intact from season to season, thanks to what's called the second apron. Enacted in 2023, it's basically a set of severe punishments for teams that spend over a certain threshold on player salaries. Here's NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speaking in a press conference last month.
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ADAM SILVER: The point was to design a system, I'm not embarrassed to say, more NFL-like, where every team was put in a position where, regardless of market size, they could compete for championships.
SULLIVAN: That sounded great at the time. But some have started to wonder - has the pendulum swung too far?
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SILVER: I think the system is working pretty well. Is it perfect? Of course not.
SULLIVAN: It's shaping up to be a competitive season in the NBA. Oklahoma City and San Antonio still look to be powerhouses. Boston could be back. And the Knicks' opening-night opponent, Philadelphia, is suddenly a contender with the additions of all-stars LeBron James and Jaylen Brown.
(CHEERING)
SULLIVAN: Last night, the 76ers downed the defending champs 106 to 100. Like New York before last year, Philadelphia has also gone decades without a title. If they pull it off, they'd be the ninth new champ in nine years, and the NBA's era of parity would stretch on.
Becky Sullivan, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF EKO FRESH SONG, "COLOGNE STATE OF MIND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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