NBA Won’t Have a Repeat Champion For 7th Straight Season After Knicks Eliminate Celtics

For the seventh consecutive season, the NBA will crown a new champion. The New York Knicks’ second-round elimination of the defending champion Boston Celtics officially extended the league’s longest stretch without a repeat titleholder since 1975–1984. It’s a reflection of a modern NBA where superteams are harder to maintain, parity is rising, and postseason unpredictability has reached historic levels.

The trend began in 2019, when the Toronto Raptors won their first-ever championship behind Kawhi Leonard’s brilliance. However, their reign was short-lived. Leonard left in free agency, and the Raptors were eliminated in the second round of the 2020 playoffs by the Celtics. That year, the Los Angeles Lakers surged in the Orlando bubble and claimed the title behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

In 2021, the Lakers attempted to defend their crown but were bounced in the first round by the Phoenix Suns. That opened the door for the Milwaukee Bucks to capture the title, with Giannis Antetokounmpo delivering a 50-point masterpiece in the Finals. 

Yet in 2022, the Bucks were knocked out in the second round by the Celtics, and the Golden State Warriors reclaimed their throne with a championship run led by Stephen Curry.

Golden State’s title defense in 2023 fell apart in the second round when they lost to the Lakers. The Denver Nuggets then capitalized, winning their first championship with Nikola Jokic posting one of the most dominant playoff performances of all time. However, Denver suffered the same fate in 2024, getting eliminated in the second round by the eventual champion Celtics.

Now, in 2025, the pattern has repeated. The Celtics, coming off a dominant 61-win season and armed with arguably the best starting five in the league, were stunned by the New York Knicks in the conference semifinals. 

Jayson Tatum’s season-ending Achilles injury in Game 4 only compounded the pain for Boston fans and marked another abrupt end to a title defense.

The last team to successfully defend their title was the 2017–18 Golden State Warriors, who were in the middle of their dynasty years with Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. But the NBA’s financial and structural landscape has changed dramatically since then. 

The implementation of the second apron in the CBA has made it nearly impossible to retain deep, expensive rosters. Superstar movement has only increased, and injuries, load management, and competitive balance are disrupting the traditional superteam model.

In this era, sustaining dominance is no longer about hoarding top-tier talent, it’s about adaptability, smart front office decisions, and a deep rotation that can withstand the grind of an 82-game season and a two-month playoff run.

With the defending champions failing to advance past the second round in each of the last seven years, the NBA is seeing a new golden age of competition. There is no longer one team fans expect to dominate every season. 

Instead, each postseason brings fresh hope to a dozen contenders and a reminder that in today’s NBA, dynasties are no longer guaranteed.