NBA tips off, with many contenders in place to chase the champion New York Knicks

LeBron James went to Philadelphia. Giannis Antetokounmpo moved to Miami. Kawhi Leonard returned to Toronto. A dozen or so former All-Star selections, the majority of them being former All-NBA picks, changed addresses this offseason as well.

And they’re all chasing the New York Knicks.

The 81st season of NBA play starts Tuesday with a tripleheader, highlighted by James and the 76ers heading to New York to face Jalen Brunson and the champion Knicks. They’ll get their championship rings before the game, see a banner swaying from the ceiling of Madison Square Garden and then get down to the task of doing something that nobody in the NBA has done for nearly a decade — repeat as title winners.

The Knicks became the NBA’s eighth different champion in the last eight years, a run unprecedented in league history. They’re not the favorites to win the title this season; that role is shared by Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder. But the Knicks weren’t expected to win it all last season either, and NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Jalen Brunson points to the title as proof that words don’t have to matter.

“There’s only potential distractions when you read and believe what people are saying,” Brunson said. “So, no matter what’s being said and no matter what’s been talked about, consistently or not, you believe what you want to believe, you hear what you want to hear. It’s on us as teammates and individuals and professionals to understand what the nature of it is. … The way we won was just because of how connected we were as a group. We’ve got to keep that.”

There is no shortage of legitimate contenders, on both sides of the league. In the Eastern Conference, four of the last eight NBA Finals MVPs changed uniforms — Leonard returning to Toronto, Antetokounmpo going to Miami, James and Jaylen Brown joining the Sixers. Detroit and Cleveland brought their rosters back virtually intact, as did the Knicks. Boston will plug Paul George into the hole created by Brown moving to Philadelphia and pair him with Jayson Tatum. Indiana gets Tyrese Haliburton back for the first time since losing Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals and expects to contend again.

“From a team perspective, we don’t have any conversations about anything but winning a championship. That’s our goal. There’s nothing more to talk about,” Haliburton said. “There are no small wins. To me, the year’s successful if you win a championship. If not, it’s not.”

And the Western Conference, as always, is loaded.

Wembanyama and Gilgeous-Alexander are two of the game’s biggest stars and the Spurs and Thunder lead the West pack. Nikola Jokic, always considered a serious contender for MVP honors, will try to get Denver back into title contention. Golden State still has Stephen Curry, the Los Angeles Lakers still have Luka Doncic, Houston is expected to contend with Kevin Durant leading the way, Portland finally will have Damian Lillard in uniform and Minnesota put together what’s expected to be an elite backcourt by pairing LaMelo Ball with Anthony Edwards.

“New beginnings,” Ball said. “It’s literally a new story. We’re all excited here. It’s going to be fun.”

The Spurs got to the NBA Finals last season after winning a Game 7 in Oklahoma City, ending hopes the Thunder had of being the league’s first back-to-back champion since the Warriors did it in 2017 and 2018.

That loss, for certain, stung the Thunder. But the offseason in OKC was about getting ready for 29 opponents, not just the one in San Antonio.

“We need to make sure that what we are doing is broad enough that it gives us a chance to be competitive across opponents, including ones that we are not aware that are going to be really good teams. That happens every single year,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “And so we need to be laser-focused on ourselves. We need to take the lessons from that series, for sure, and we did. But it’s certainly not something that we overcorrect for because you end up chasing your shadow, and it prevents you from being your best as you move forward.”

There are six new coaches this season: Dusty May took his NCAA title won last spring with Michigan and moved to Dallas, Micah Nori takes over in Portland, Tiago Splitter will coach Chicago, Taylor Jenkins was tabbed to oversee the post-Giannis rebuild in Milwaukee, Sean Sweeney got the job in Orlando to replace Jamahl Mosley and Mosley will coach New Orleans.

The NBA Cup final will move from Las Vegas to Indianapolis this year, the All-Star weekend is in Phoenix and there’s a No. 1 draft pick in AJ Dybantsa who already is turning heads in Washington, But all eyes will eventually turn to June, and whoever will be the next team to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

“We did something great last year,” Knicks wing Mikal Bridges said. “That was last year. I think the biggest thing coming into this year is that we know what it takes.”

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