{"id":1992205,"date":"2026-06-15T23:58:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1992205"},"modified":"2026-06-15T23:58:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:58:47","slug":"james-dolan-told-the-knicks-theyd-win-the-nba-title-before-their-playoff-run-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1992205","title":{"rendered":"James Dolan told the Knicks they\u2019d win the NBA title before their playoff run started"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New York Knicks owner James Dolan personally implored his team to lock in for an opportunity to win \u201ca moniker on ourselves that will never, ever f\u2014ing go away.\u201d Ten weeks later, they did just that, becoming NBA champions for the first time in 53 years.<\/p>\n

A video of Dolan\u2019s April 3 speech emerged on social media Monday via the \u201cRoommates Show\u201d X account. The podcast is hosted by Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, key members of the drought-breaking squad that sent the nation\u2019s largest city into hysteria. It didn\u2019t note who filmed the scene, but both Brunson and head coach Mike Brown appeared in it, nodding along.<\/p>\n

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In the video, Dolan told the Knicks that he felt the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy was within reach, saying he believed they could go all the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my 30 years of doing this, I\u2019ve never felt close to achieving that goal,\u201d said Dolan, whose father purchased the Knicks and Madison Square Garden in 1994. \u201cRight now, I don\u2019t know if you understand what it would mean for you to win a championship this year \u2014 to win the NBA championship. It will be life-changing for all of you. It will stick with you for the rest of your lives. And if you don\u2019t win, you\u2019ll be thinking about it the rest of your lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolan made his comments amid a hot streak the team hadn\u2019t seen in a decade. In early April, the Knicks\u2019 53 regular-season wins were their most since the 2012-13 season, when they logged 54. They were about to make their fourth consecutive playoff run, a milestone unseen since a team-record 14-year run ended in 2001.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhy I\u2019m here is because we have 10 weeks. Ten weeks of your life to achieve something that will stay with you the rest of your life and the rest of my life. But you\u2019re going to have to give it your all,\u201d Dolan said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to get more now than you\u2019ve ever, ever before. For this team and to your careers. And the big word is sacrifice. You\u2019re going to have to sacrifice if you want to achieve this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe you can do it. I\u2019ve seen you do it this season, and you\u2019ve seen yourself do it. You know you could do it. I believe you know you can do it. But will you do it for the next 10 weeks?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Watch the full speech here https:\/\/t.co\/PZn49t0gaU<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Roommates Show (@Roommates__Show) June 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Those 10 weeks would become immortal franchise lore.<\/p>\n

To open the playoffs, the Knicks won 13 straight games after trailing the Atlanta Hawks 2-1 in the first round, good for the second-longest win streak in NBA playoff history. They capped it with the largest single-game comeback in NBA Finals history, overcoming a\u00a0 29-point deficit to steal Game 4 from the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

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Individually, Karl-Anthony Towns set the postseason record for a player\u2019s plus-minus in a single postseason run (plus-258). Brunson (plus-234) finished third on that list behind Stephen Curry in 2017. Brunson\u2019s 45 points in Game 5 also tied Michael Jordan for the most in a road closeout game in NBA Finals history.<\/p>\n

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Dolan finished his speech with a promise to recognize the contributions players\u2019 families made while supporting their collective mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we win the championship, right, we will get rings. And when we get rings, so will they. I will get it. I will buy a ring for each one of your significant others, because their contribution is going to be very important to this team,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not just a player thing. This is an entire organization thing. We\u2019ve been working at this for years to get ourselves to this point. And now 10 weeks. Can you do it? Can you focus for 10 weeks? If you do that, at the end of that week, we\u2019re walking out of here with rings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the sacrifices Dolan highlighted, alongside extra practice time and getting enough sleep, was his recommendation that the players avoid having sex in the run-up to the playoffs. Snickers ensued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had this idea that maybe you should give up sex for the next 10 weeks. You don\u2019t have to give up sex for the next 10 weeks, but \u2014 like the Spartans, you know what Spartans are? They denied themselves, right? So that they can have an edge. Get the edge,\u201d Dolan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo home. Talk to your wives and tell them \u2014 don\u2019t tell them you\u2019re not gonna have sex, don\u2019t tell \u2018em it was my idea \u2014 but let them know what this is gonna be like, what your commitment is gonna be like, and how they\u2019re gonna have to sacrifice, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Knicks\u2019 ticker-tape parade is scheduled for Thursday and will set out from Battery Park at 10:00 a.m. ET. It will follow the \u201cCanyon of Heroes\u201d route from the park to New York City Hall, which has hosted celebratory processions ranging from the Statue of Liberty\u2019s 1886 dedication to the New York Liberty\u2019s 2024 WNBA Championship parade.<\/p>\n

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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement that he will present players with keys to the city at the end of the route, and he teased that the event could end up as the largest parade in the city\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will forever, ever, be important to New York City,\u201d Dolan said that day in April. \u201cNo matter where you go and what you do the rest of your lives, when people introduce you, even if you become the president of the United States, they\u2019ll start off with \u2018NBA champion, 2026.\u2019 That\u2019s what\u2019s at stake here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether it reaches that bar, it\u2019s guaranteed to be the largest parade in Knicks history. In fact, it will be the first: The 1970 and 1973 championship teams never had parades at all, as then-mayor John Lindsay opted to honor them with more private ceremonies. Now welcome to their heroes\u2019 party, New York\u2019s Knicks faithful should be ready.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Knicks owner James Dolan personally implored his team to lock in for an opportunity to win \u201ca moniker on ourselves that will never, ever f\u2014ing go away.\u201d Ten weeks later, they did just that, becoming NBA champions for the first time in 53 years. A video of Dolan\u2019s April 3 speech emerged on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1992205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1992205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1992205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1992205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1992205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}