Knicks Will Dominate Among the Top 10 Sports Predictions for 2025

The big local sports news in the coming year will be the stunning and stirring New York Knicks’ 2025 NBA Championship, the franchise’s first title since 1973 and the legendary squad of Walt “Clyde” Frazier, the Captain Willis Reed, Earl “the Pearl” Monroe, “Dollar” Bill Bradley, and the other greats.

As far as the city’s other teams, you can sum up the 2025 New York sports scene by invoking this axiom: The more things change, the more they will remain the same.

So, look for the Yankees and the Mets to compete for a World Series championship. Again.

And look for the Giants and the Jets to compete for the first overall pick in the NFL college draft, signifying utter futility.

A year from now, the Knicks will be the defending NBA champs.

The Nets will be forever searching for an identity in the city’s sports ecosystem.

The Rangers will be in a deep rebuilding mode. The Islanders and the Devils will be irrelevant, as ever.

Ten Predictions

Drum roll, please:

Here are Ten Can’t Miss New York Sports Predictions:

1) The Knicks Win the NBA Championship –At Last! The Knicks are doing everything right so far this season. In a hallmark of any championship squad, they can win in many ways–shooting 3s, running, slowing down the pace, banging under the boards and methodically grinding down the opposition. No other team–not even Boston or Oklahoma City has this resourcefulness. The Knicks’ two games versus Oklahoma City on Jan. 3 and Jan. 10 will say a lot about this team’s prowess.

2) Juan Soto, National League MVP: It’s illogical to pick against Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodger superstar. But I expect to see Soto, whom the Mets hijacked from the Yankees with a staggering $765 million contract offer, will be primed to show the world that he is worth every penny. And you know what? He definitely is.

3) The Yankees Will Be Just Fine: Yankee fans were dismayed when Soto jumped across town. But Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman has deftly gone to Plan B and plugged glaring holes in the pitching rotation, in the outfield and at first base. The Yankees figure to be better in 2025 than they were in 2024, when they advanced to the franchise’s first World Series appearance in 15 years.

4) The Rangers Will Rebuild With a Vengeance: Ah, the Rangers! The team got old and slow seemingly overnight in the first half of the 2024-25 season. At this writing, it has lost eight of its previous 10 games. I fear that the worst is yet to come.

5) Whither the Nets–Who? As the Knicks’ fortunes ascend, the Nets will continue to search for an identity in town. Even when Jason Kidd was leading this franchise to the NBA Finals two decades ago, the Nets seemed like an afterthought in the annals of the city game. And despite a move to Brooklyn from Jersey, nothing has changed, to the franchise’s chagrin.

6) The Giants: The Biggest Embarrassment in the City: Proud Big Blue will humiliate its loyal fans with another mind-numbingly bad season again next year. No quarterback savior is on the horizon. And that is only one reason to shake your head at this team’s utter ineptitude.

7) The Jets Are Right Behind the Jints: Whether 41-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers returns or not in 2025, the team will be its usual chaotic mess. How long have the Jets been waiting to return to the Super Bowl, let alone win the big game? Think of it this way: On Jan. 12, 1969, when the Jets won their lone Super Bowl, Richard Nixon had not yet been sworn in as President, The Beatles had yet to stage their legendary rooftop concert, and the Miracle Mets had not yet won their first World Series championship.

8) Aaron Judge, American League MVP: Yankees slugger Judge, who was the unanimous MVP for his regular season play in 2024, will rebound from his disappointing World Series play and be the dominant player in his league once again.

9) The Mets: Wait Till Next Year: Even though Soto will be as great as advertised, and the Mets made a good move to re-sign Sean Manaea, they still have holes in the starting rotation. They’d have to lure Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki to join fellow countryman Kodai Senga to have a chance overtake the powerful Dodgers.

10) Jalen Brunson, Mister Gotham: Brunson, the Knicks’ best player, will take over the city with his sparkling scoring and passing. It is blasphemous to some to compare anyone to Walt Frazier, but Brunson, as humble and team-oriented as he is lethal as a scorer, will earn the comparisons.