Get ready for this, because we’re going to do this a lot in the weeks and months — even years — to come. We’re going to use the Knicks as a template, as a blueprint, as a reference point whenever a team deems itself worthy of championship conversation. The Knicks are the model now. The Knicks are the exemplar.
The Yankees? They are worthy of such conversation, and it so happens that right now, they are a perfect case study for this. Like the ‘26 Knicks, they are comprised of enough components to be thought of as title-worthy – at least in the abstract. Like the ‘26 Knicks, there’s a lot to like about what they’ve done so far this year, capped by back-to-back-to-back five-o’clock-lightning strikes in Washington just before the break.
And like the Knicks, they can be more frustrating than that Wordle game Wednesday that had a nation flummoxed (or should we say pflummoed?; IYKYN).
And it so happens the Yankees now face, at a proximate juncture of their schedule, the same kind of immediate test the Knicks faced back on March 1. That was the day when those who chose to believe in the Knicks could take heart that perhaps their faith was at least a little bit justified, a sign that something real existed beyond all the question marks.
