Steve Popper: Can the Knicks repeat? Here's the case for it, the case against it, and what I think will happen.

The statistic really has nothing to do with anything the Knicks have done or failed to do. It is something that happened to others, not to them. But it echoes around every conversation about the Knicks and their quest to successfully defend the NBA title it took 53 years to capture.

Before the championship banner is raised at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, before the rings are handed out for the nearly complete cast returning to try to win another title, there is a number that is placed in front of the Knicks.

Eight.

Eight straight times.

It is the number of NBA champions who have tried and failed to repeat, whose dreams of a dynasty or even one more title fell short. The last eight champions have failed to repeat, giving in to the realities of teams built to stop them, injuries, egos and salary cap issues.

And now the Knicks are up. After a summer of celebrations, the team that ended a 53-year wait is trying to stop that trend at eight years.

Why the Knicks can repeat

Maybe it feels a little bit as if the season never ended with the parades and parties. After all, when the Knicks start the season on Tuesday night against the 76ers with all of the pageantry that the franchise has waited 53 years to be able to put out on the court, they return nearly the entire roster intact from last season, still the best team in the NBA until someone can prove otherwise.

It may have taken the Knicks until Game 4 of the opening round of the playoffs last season to find themselves, but what they put together from there — 13 consecutive postseason wins, sweeps through the Eastern Conference semifinals and finals, then a five-game win over the Spurs in the NBA Finals — was a revelation.

The Knicks emerged as a team, one surely led by Jalen Brunson but with depth and diversity of style, with different heroes emerging on different nights.

But that familiarity, the faces that you saw in the parade and on seemingly every network through the summer, is why the Knicks can win it again.

Knicks president Leon Rose and his front office have managed to put together and hold together a roster that fits well together, one that is unencumbered by ego and selfishness.

Maybe there was no need for maturity from a team that already was steeped in it, but what the NBA title did bring them, aside from all of the accolades, was knowledge: the secrets to how they did it and how they can do it again.

Karl-Anthony Towns found his purpose, a way for the six-time All-Star to lift the team. OG Anunoby, who made the tip-in heard ’round the world, emerged from the shadows to finally find his place in the spotlight.

Mikal Bridges shook off the burden of the cost to bring him to the organization, finally saying aloud what Knicks fans learned — “[expletive] them picks.” Josh Hart’s fire seemed to spread throughout the roster.

And the veterans on the bench were content in their roles, emerging one night and then cheering for one another on the nights they didn’t.

Almost every piece is back, secure in their roles with a coach in Mike Brown who has earned their trust. Mitchell Robinson has been replaced by Andre Drummond. There is no superteam in the Eastern Conference to get in their way as they try to work their way back to the NBA Finals.

What can stop the Knicks?

If it’s easy to see how the Knicks can repeat, it’s also simple to see how it can all crumble.

The preseason preparation already has been roiled by open disputes about contract extensions. The future beyond this season has gone murky. The team has publicly said it won’t go into the second apron to hold the pieces together — already evidenced by the departure of Robinson during the summer.

Towns is the most visible face left in limbo, but Hart and Deuce McBride and Tyler Kolek all face uncertain futures, too, as the team tries to navigate the salary cap.

But it’s more than just money. The Knicks managed to make their way through the 2025-26 season with little injury trouble while players such as the Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton were lost for the season. There were questionable absences, too, as teams tanked so desperately for the NBA Draft that the league finally stepped in and implemented new rules to get teams to play to win.

The regular season will be harder. The path through the East will be a battle with teams such as Philadelphia and Miami that retooled and brought in star power to try to match what the Knicks accomplished.

And really, if you look back before the 13-game postseason winning streak, the Knicks had questions. Detroit had dominated them in the head-to-head matchups and the Knicks were the third seed in the conference. The Knicks were the NBA’s best team for 15 of 16 games to finish the playoffs, but there were six months of a roller-coaster ride before that.

What will happen?

How deep do you have to bury this team on any night for them to give up?

Opposing teams jockeying for positioning in the final days of the regular season to avoid other teams, not them, didn’t deter the Knicks. The 2-1 series deficit and a Game 4 on the road in the first round against Atlanta didn’t get them to wave the white flag. A 22-point deficit with less than eight minutes left in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was just a precursor to the 29-point hole they climbed out of in Game 4 against the Spurs, the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history.

Those are lessons that the Knicks carry into this season. So when we list all of the things that could serve as obstacles to their attempt to repeat, you can understand why they confidently shrug at them and offer a “bring it on.”

“Obviously, we know what it takes, but [we’re] just going into this with the same mindset for this journey,” Brunson said. “It’s a new journey, it’s a different journey. The approach has to be the same, if not better.”

The path back to the NBA Finals certainly will be tougher. Last year, Brown said before the season began that he would not chase a regular-season win at the cost of the big picture, and he repeated like a mantra the notion that the season would bring ups and downs — and it did.

This time around, the Knicks might not be the top seed in the regular season, might not silence the contract distractions and might face an injury or crisis that they avoided last season.

But would you count them out?

When the Knicks announced last week that they were halting all contract talks until a later date, Towns could have lashed out or asked out. Instead, he took the high road.

“We’re all humans. My only philosophy since we won, only thing on my mind, is how do we win another one?” he said. “For me, it’s the same focus I came into this season with is the same focus I’m going into Game 1 with: How do we keep the trophy in New York beyond this one summer?”

The Knicks managed to keep their focus through every obstacle last season, and that provided a blueprint for the tougher task of trying to repeat.

Eight straight teams have failed at that.

But I would not count out the Knicks until they are eliminated, and I don’t see a team in the East that can do that. The Knicks should be able to get back to the Finals, and whether it’s the Spurs awaiting them again, the Thunder returning to prominence in the West or the Timberwolves emerging, I won’t pick against the Knicks until there isn’t a second left on the clock for a comeback.

BEAT WRITER’S PREDICTION

Regular season:

51-31, third place in Eastern Conference

Playoffs: beat Heat in Eastern Conference finals, beat Spurs in NBA Finals

The Knicks didn’t prioritize the regular season in 2025-26, and with the path tougher this season (competition and less tanking), they won’t do it now. But experience helps when it counts, and the Knicks still hold the edge over teams pieced together this summer and young squads still growing.

This is Steve Popper’s  ninth season covering the Knicks for Newsday.

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.