New York Knicks can finally end Toronto Maple Leafs comparisons

Maybe the Knicks cancel the comparison for good by winning the title. Or maybe, in classic Leafs and Knicks fashion, something goes spectacularly wrong at just the wrong time.

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Published May 26, 2026  •  4 minute read

Karl-Anthony Towns (right) and Miles McBride of the New York Knicks celebrate with the Bob Cousy Trophy after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers to advance to the NBA Finals. Getty Images

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For many years, this corner and others have compared the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Knicks, mostly unfavourably, owing to a lot of things the two storied franchises have in common.

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First, they both have massive, long-suffering fanbases. No other NHL team comes close to rivalling the legion of Leafs supporters, while only the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are in the same ballpark of the rabid “Knicks Nation.”

Even decades of heartbreak or outright ineptness have not tamed the passion of Leafs and Knicks backers. Most Canadians (and everybody in Boston and Buffalo) know that the Leafs haven’t hoisted the Stanley Cup since 1967, while the Knicks most recently won an NBA title way back in 1973.

Not only have they not been able to win it all, the Leafs haven’t even made the championship round since 1967, while the Knicks only got that far twice — losing in 1994 when Michael Jordan was playing baseball and in 1999 in a shortened season.

Both franchises even suffered through lost, almost comical periods: Toronto’s being the Harold Ballard-led 1980s (the Leafs won 30 or more games only twice in the ‘80s and rarely even won a playoff round, if they qualified for the post-season at all) and New York stumbling through much of that decade as well and then later making the playoffs only once between 2002-2010, then going seven straight years out of the post-season from 2013-14 through the pandemic.

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When the Leafs or Knicks have even qualified over the years, they’ve often crushed their bases with absurd collapses. There THAT 3-1 game against Bruins in 2013 and a bunch more for the Leafs, For the Knicks, the Charles Smith game, Reggie Miller’s epic choke sign game and last year’s shocking loss of a late 14-point lead in an eventual seven-game defeat against Indiana in the conference final.

How have fanbases dealt with crushing defeats?

Despite all the losing and mismanagement, fan interest has never wavered. In fact, both franchises have only become more popular, profitable and valuable.

The Leafs are worth $4.4 billion, according to Forbes, to lead all NHL franchises with the New York Rangers are next at $4 billion. The Knicks are at an estimated $9.85 billion, trailing only the Golden State Warriors and Lakers, and well ahead of the fourth-place Los Angeles Clippers at $6.72B.

They both print money, no matter how they fare on the ice and court.

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They each also have a corporate cousin that has consistently outshone them. The Raptors won the 2019 NBA title despite only joining the league in 2005 and only Golden State had more wins between 2013 and 2022.

The Rangers broke their own long drought by winning the Stanley Cup in 1994 and got another crack in 2014, losing to the Los Angeles Kings. New York was also the President’s Trophy winner (best regular-season team) in 2014-15, are fifth in wins since 2006-07 and made the conference finals five times since 2011.

Plus, with Edward Rogers set to take full control of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment as soon as next month, both will be owned and operated by a billionaire head of a telecom empire started by their father.

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By advancing to the NBA Finals this week and by playing the best basketball of any team in these playoffs (better than almost any squad in recent memory, to be frank, as 11 straight wins since going down 2-1 against Atlanta in Round 1 attests), the Knicks may just give Leafs fans a precious commodity: Hope.

If they can make it this far and perhaps beyond (either San Antonio or defending champion Oklahoma City will be much bigger tests than what the Knicks have faced up to this point) after all these years, maybe the Leafs can too one day.

Maybe lucking into a draft lottery win in a year where Gavin McKenna is up for grabs was the start of something. The Knicks did this by making one of the great free-agent signings in sports history (MVP candidate Jalen Brunson) and by winning, often decisively, just about every trade they’ve made over the past five seasons.

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Ownership has mostly gotten out of the way, made smart hires and paid up to keep the roster intact (Brunson taking a sweetheart deal, something the Leafs stars of the past decade never did, has certainly helped a lot).

Maybe the Knicks cancel the comparison for good by winning the title. Or maybe, in classic Leafs and Knicks fashion, something goes spectacularly wrong at just the wrong time.

We’ll have to wait and see.

@WolstatSun

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