Steve Sica - What The Mets Can Learn From The Knicks

Watching the Knicks finally win an NBA title for the first time in 53 years was a surreal feeling on Saturday night. I've been a Knicks fan for just a little less than I've been a Mets fan, and out of all the teams I rooted for growing up, a Knicks title seemed like the most distant one of them all.

That's because for the better part of the last century, the Knicks had been a punching bag for the league and a punch line for late-night talk show hosts. They had a three-year run with Carmelo Anthony, but never made it past the second round, and then it was back into the abyss. 

But the Knicks slowly began building the blocks of a championship four years ago when they got Jalen Brunson and built around him. It wasn't quick. They lost in the semifinals in 2023 and 2024, and lost in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2025. They climbed the mountain in 2026 and won what was probably the most impactful championship in New York sports history.

With the Knicks' win, the Mets now move into the third-longest drought in New York sports without a championship, behind the Jets and Islanders. The Mets could learn a thing or two from their fellow orange and blue squad.

The unique thing about the Knicks' title is that it wasn't built through the draft, tanking, or assembling a super team. They just made smart trades and signings, plugging holes as needed and building a team that really gelled together and performed where it counted. This is something that the Mets have been lacking in the 2020's. 

2024 was the lone exception, but every other year, even the years the Mets were good, the team didn't all seem to be pulling the rope in one direction. Steve Cohen has tried to buy a great roster, and in some ways, he has. Names like Juan Soto, Bo Bichette, and Francisco Lindor dot the lineup in 2026, but the team remains under .500. You can't say that spending large amounts of money doesn't lead to success. The Dodgers are back-to-back World Series champions. The Yankees are in the postseason seemingly every season. The Phillies have had a run of success in the last five years, too, with a couple of division titles and an NL pennant. All these teams spend around what the Mets do, and all have more to show for it.

The issue isn't a lack of spending; it's spending money smartly and thinking about a long-term vision of what players fit in the right slots on the drive to a championship.

Perhaps the reason 2024 went so well was that that was ironically the only offseason in which Steve Cohen didn't make a big splash in free agency or on the trade market. The front office simply took a chance on some players and brought in fresh faces that remarkably got along very well and were easy and fun to root for. Sound familiar? 

As a Knicks fan, I'm elated that they're finally NBA champions. As a Mets fan, it made me realize how far off this team is from winning a World Series.

It didn't happen overnight for the Knicks. Once Brunson got there, it still took them nearly a half a decade of playoff disappointments before they finally broke through. The Mets have yet to win a championship or even have sustained playoff success like the Knicks, Rangers, and Yankees have at least had over the years.

Maybe Steve Cohen and James Dolan can get together this summer and words I never thought I'd say, but perhaps Dolan, who might be the best owner in this town, can give Cohen a little piece or two of advice on how to build a true champion.