Paul Pierce wasn’t especially impressed with the New York Knicks victory in this year’s NBA Cup Championship and he certainly doesn’t think that the team’s success in the early-season tournament will be an indicator of future success. In fact, he believes the opposite.
“This is the only championship that the Knicks are ever going to win,” Pierce said of the Knicks on a recent episode of the No Fouls Given show. “Let’s just keep it 100 … They won’t win an NBA title in my lifetime.”
Pierce pointed to the fact that previous NBA Cup champions have been unable to replicate their success when it matters most at the end of the season.
“Every team that has won the NBA Cup has never went to the Finals,” Pierce said. “That’s a fact.”
It’s true. It is a fact that no Cup champion has gone on to win the NBA Finals the same season that they won the cup. But, there are only two previous cup champions, as the NBA Cup was just introduced two seasons ago, so there’s not a very big sample size for Pierce to point to.
The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural NBA Cup in 2023 and their season ultimately came to an end in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. Last year, the Milwaukee Bucks claimed the Cup crown and they also eventually lost in the first round of postseason play to the Indiana Pacers.
This story will be updated.