The New York Knicks are NBA champions for the first time in 53 years. They defeated the San Antonio Spurs in five games, overcoming a double-digit deficit in each of their four wins.
After falling behind 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, they won 15 of their remaining 16 playoff contests.
What does this have to do with the Washington Commanders?
Technically, nothing. But if you have followed the NBA for longer than the past few years, you would know that for the majority of the 21st century, the Knicks were one of the league's biggest organizational punchlines from top to bottom. They wallowed in mediocrity or worse, with fans in droves calling for owner James Dolan to sell the team.
Sounds a lot like a certain NFL franchise.
If James Dolan and the Knicks can win the NBA title, then the Commanders can win a Super Bowl
Everything that applied to Washington football during the Dan Snyder era applied to the Knicks during the 2000s and 2010s.
The ill-fated trades and free-agent signings as they chased names rather than production. The desperate attempts to cling to "the brand" as their ancient trophies gathered cobwebs. Even the little brother status to another team in their own metropolitan area.
Between 2002 and 2020, the Knicks made the postseason four times in 19 years and won one postseason series. They hit rock bottom during the 2019 offseason, when it was no secret that superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would be linking up in New York as free agents... and they chose the Brooklyn Nets.
But the Knicks turned it around.
Leon Rose took over as general manager in 2020 and built a well-oiled machine, brick by brick. New York signed Jalen Brunson at a bargain and traded for Karl-Anthony Towns, O.G. Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart. Second-round picks such as Mitchell Robinson and Miles McBride became key pieces of their title-winning rotation. Head coach Tom Thibodeau changed their culture, and Mike Brown took them to the next level.
Just like that, a franchise with a supposed "losing DNA" was doing everything that winning teams do. Because "losing DNA" does not actually exist.
Sports teams are not sentient beings. They are institutions made up of people, and people come and go.
Let's remember that next time the cloud of doom and gloom hovers over Landover, and the self-pity crowd bemoans how the Commanders aren't allowed to have good things. All it takes is a few of the right people in the right positions, and the rest takes care of itself from there.
There is nothing forbidding the Commanders from being a successful franchise. If the Knicks could turn their fortunes around in only a few short years, then so can they.
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