NBA Won't Have Repeat Champion for 7th Straight Season After Knicks Eliminate Celtics

It's not easy to win two in a row.

The NBA will go another season without a repeat champion after the New York Knicks defeated the defending-champion Boston Celtics 4-2 in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

New York's win means this will be the seventh-consecutive season without a repeat champion.

This is the 2nd-longest drought in league history. The last repeat-champion was the 2017-18 and 2018-19 Golden State Warriors.

This drought is longer than both the NHL and NFL but is not as long as MLB's drought. The last team to win consecutive championships in that league was the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.

The last drought this long in the NBA was between 2003-2009.

In addition to not winning back-to-back titles, no team that won a title in the previous season has advanced past the second round.

The Celtics looked like the team that could do that this season after a 61-21 regular season and an easy first-round victory over the Orlando Magic. Boston took on a New York team that it had swept in the regular season but poor shooting and an untimely injury to star forward Jayson Tatum ended their title hopes.

The Knicks will face the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals for a chance to advance to the NBA Finals. New York has not won a title since 1973 while Indiana has not won a NBA title.