ESPN released its expert predictions for the 2027 NBA championship on Monday, and none of the 15 who contributed picked the New York Knicks to repeat.

Released a day before the Knicks open their title defense, the predictions drew mixed reactions from fans. While some weren’t bothered by the snub, many questioned the experts’ judgment.

Fans Weigh In As ESPN Experts Overlook Knicks in 2027 NBA Title Picks

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder, who captured the 2025 championship, received 10 of the 15 title votes. Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs, last season’s runners-up, got the other five, with every expert backing one of the two Western Conference heavyweights to win it all.

Danny Green, Tim MacMahon, Bobby Marks, Dave McMenamin, and Anthony Slater still picked the Knicks to win the Eastern Conference, tying them with the Philadelphia 76ers at five votes apiece. The Boston Celtics garnered three votes, while the Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors picked up one each. However, all five experts who picked New York to reach the Finals anticipated Jalen Brunson and Co. coming up short the second time around.

Legion Hoops called attention to the slight, captioning the picks, “Not a single person picked the Knicks to repeat.”

Some Knicks supporters took the news in stride, with one posting, “Not shocking,” before adding, “Keep sleepin.”

Another fan suggested the doubt is nothing new: “Guess what? They didn’t pick them to do it last year either.”

Others took issue with the conference imbalance.

“This is crazy, they all chose West teams,” one fan pointed out.

“Not a single expert picked the Eastern Conference team to win. This is going to make for a great conversation in June,” another noted.

Not everyone saw a snub, though. One fan backed the panel, stressing, “There hasn’t been a repeat champ in 8 years.”

Another agreed, then turned the criticism elsewhere: “We haven’t seen repeat champs in nearly a decade, that’s understandable. It’s the Celtics making the Finals picks that are the head scratchers here.”

The Knicks finished 53-29 last season, nine games behind the Spurs (62-20), before going on to upset the upstart squad in five games for their first championship in 53 years.

Brunson scored 45 points in the title-clinching contest in San Antonio as New York rallied from a 16-point deficit to cap off its odds-defying playoff run defined by the star guard’s late-game heroics and the team’s unwavering resilience.

The Knicks are returning with most of their championship core intact, including their five Finals starters: Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart. They begin their title defense Tuesday against the new-look 76ers at Madison Square Garden.

Philadelphia added LeBron James and Jaylen Brown alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey this offseason, giving it arguably the league’s best starting unit. As such, New York will face a tough test right out of the gate as it looks to gauge where it stacks up in the revamped East.