New York Knicks Stefan Bondy The rare NBA quality that’s spurring these Knicks’ success By Stefan Bondy Published May 5, 2026, 6:28 p.m. ET Knicks guard Mikal Bridges is greeted by Josh Hart after scoring against the 76ers on Monday night. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post The way it works in the NBA, for the most part, is there is no magic switch. Unless you’re prime LeBron James and maybe 2023 Jimmy Butler, you can’t ride regular-season inactivity into a championship.
Put another way — there’s a reason only two of the 79 NBA champions were seeded outside the top three in their respective conferences. It’s a crazy stat that doesn’t get talked about enough. Almost 98 percent of the champions were seeded No. 1, 2 or 3. It’s unlike any other major professional sport.
Despite what Adam Silver’s league has devolved into from October to April — and despite the commissioner’s bragging of parity and the play-in tournament — the regular season still matters.
