Gilbert Arenas gets brutally honest about not picking the Knicks to go back-to-back

Gilbert Arenas gets brutally honest about not picking the Knicks to go back-to-back originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Before the 2026 Playoffs, the New York Knicks were not seen as the favorites to win the championship. However, they managed to become the best team in the postseason midway through their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks.

After losing two games to the Hawks, the Knicks only lost one other game in the Playoffs, and that came way later in the NBA Finals. Ahead of their championship defense, it seems that they want to keep the momentum going for a repeat.

Gilbert Arenas believes the Knicks will not go back-to-back

There has not been a team that has repeated as champions since 2018, when the Golden State Warriors did it with their superteam. For the past eight seasons, there has been a different champion, but the Knicks are ready to buck that trend.

In 2026, the Knicks managed to surprise people by winning the championship. Ahead of the 2026-27 season, the Knicks are seen as a top team, but they might not be the favorites to do it again. 

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That is what the Knicks would want because they can surprise the league again. However, someone who does not envision the Knicks winning is former multi-time NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas.

"Nobody went back-to-back in 8 seasons? Make it 9. Because what I do know is when you beat someone, they load up. So, the whole theory of we won it, let's run it back the same, pretending that we have the number one guard, number one shooting guard, the number one small forward so we don’t have to upgrade while everybody else is upgrading is the reason they don’t make it back," Arenas said on his Gils Arena show.

The rest of the league will be ready to stop the Knicks, especially with the targets on their backs. However, it seems the Knicks will want to prove everyone wrong, something that they have become familiar with doing in recent months.

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