James Dolan says the Knicks have reached the point where winning the East is something they “absolutely (have) to do,” and that New York should win the championship, too. The message landed as the Knicks prepared to face the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs.
The comments came earlier this year in a rare radio interview from the man who has run the Knicks since 1999, and they now hang over a team that finished the regular season with 53 wins, earned the No. 3 seed for the second straight year and won the NBA Cup. For a franchise that has not won at the highest level in over 50 years, the expectations were set as high as they can go.
That pressure arrives with a new coach. Mike Brown inherited the job after the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau following last season’s run to the conference finals, their first in 25 years. The front office led by Leon Rose remained in place, but the coaching change made clear that New York’s improvement was no longer enough on its own.
Brown has not leaned into Dolan’s title demand. When asked about the broader expectation, he said, “I don’t even think about the last part of the question.” He added that “Everybody in that locker room has a competitive spirit that I like, and I can say is unmatched,” before turning the conversation back to the work ahead: “We’re concentrating on practice tomorrow, getting ready for Atlanta.”
The Knicks have now posted three straight seasons of 50 or more wins, a run that would usually soften the edge of a playoff opener. Instead, it has sharpened the conversation around a team that has been better, steadier and more relevant than at almost any point in the last 25 years, but still has not reached the one standard Dolan put in plain view. The schedule has arrived, and with it the burden of proving that this group can turn regular-season progress into something that lasts into spring.
