It has been 12 long and painful years since the city of New York last celebrated a sporting championship. Yet with seven months to go, hopes of that grim statistic ending in 2024 are slowly building.
The Giants’ win over Tom Brady’s Patriots in the 2012 Super Bowl marked both a historic triumph and the beginning of a miserable drought for the Big Apple. That victory, when Ahmad Bradshaw broke New England hearts in the dying seconds, was the last time one of its sports franchises proved the best in its respective field.
This year, however, that could finally change.
Across all major sports there are more than enough reasons for New Yorkers to be quietly confident of their chances; the Knicks and Rangers are going strong in the NBA and NHL playoffs, the Yankees look a team transformed early on this season and the Jets are gearing up for what they hope will be Aaron Rodgers’ first full campaign. Even in MLS, where both the Red Bulls and New York City disappointed last term, things look to be on the up.
So could sporting glory finally return to New York this year? Dailymail.com takes a closer look at their chances.
New York’s last sporting title came when Eli Manning and the Giants won the 2012 Super Bowl
But there is newfound hope in the Big Apple of that grim statistic finally changing this year
Knicks flying high
The 2023-24 campaign has already been one to remember for Knicks fans, with Jalen Brunson inspiring the team to one of its greatest-ever regular seasons.
For the first time since 2012-13 New York recorded an incredible 50 regular-seasons wins to storm into the playoffs as a leading contender to go all the way and clinch the NBA Championship, a title the Big Apple has gone without for 51 years.
Brunson, who finished fifth in this year’s MVP voting, has been nothing short of sensational, putting up career best numbers with an average of 28.7 points on 48 percent shooting and 6.7 assists per game.
And neither the Knicks or their star point guard are done yet. After cruising past the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs, Tom Thibodeau’s men are now 2-0 up in their Conference Semifinal against the Indiana Pacers.
Two more victories will set up a date of destiny with either the Boston Celtics or the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference showpiece, a stage they have not reached since the 1998-99 season.
Whisper it quietly, but Madison Square Garden stands a strong chance of hosting its first NBA Finals this century.
Jalen Brunson has helped the Knicks enjoy one of the best seasons in their history, and they’re still going strong in the playoffs
Rangers on the rise
Similarly to the Knicks, Madison Square Garden’s other sporting tenants has high hopes of pulling off a feat they have not managed in the last decade.
It has been exactly 10 years since the Rangers reached the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals, and exactly 20 since they lifted the famous trophy aloft.
Yet also to mirror their basketball counterparts, they find themselves 3-0 ahead in their second-round playoff battle with the Carolina Hurricanes, having swept the Washington Capitals in the first.
The Rangers, who won 82 of their 160 regular-season games, were sizeable underdogs heading into the series with Carolina, one of the top Stanley Cup contenders throughout the campaign.
Though after two straight wins at the Garden, and with Matt Rempe mania in full effect, Barclay Goodrow’s team is in a rich vein of form and thriving off the momentum with the Conference Finals in sight.
The Rangers, like the Knicks, currently hold a 2-0 lead in the second round of their playoff tilt
Soto inspiring Yankees
It is much earlier days for the Yankees, who are still less than two months into the 2024 MLB season.
Nevertheless, the arrival of three-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger Juan Soto seems to have already transformed their fortunes dramatically after a historically bad 2023.
After 25 games the Yankees sit second in the AL East with a win percentage of .641, a figure Soto has been largely responsible for. In Wednesday’s win over the Houston Astros the Dominican left-fielder started his fifth three-hit game of the season by hitting a 440-foot homer off an advertisement in the back of Houston’s bullpen in left-center field. He wound up with three hits and five RBIs, and his average climbed to .338.
While there is still plenty of baseball to be played, Yankees fans will be dreaming of a return to the postseason after failing to reach the playoffs for the first time in seven years last season.
With Soto at the top of his game, Aaron Judge getting back to his best after a steady start by his standards and Gerrit Cole still to return… who’s to say they can’t go all the way?
The arrival of Juan Soto already appears to have transformed the Yankees’ fortunes
With Aaron Judge (center) also returning to his best, Yankees fans are already dreaming of a strong playoff run
Take two for Rodgers
Last season initially promised so much for the Jets when Aaron Rodgers waved goodbye to the Green Bay Packers and rocked up in New Jersey. Then, of course, came that fateful debut against the Buffalo Bills on Week 1, when the four-time NFL MVP ruptured his Achilles tendon after just four snaps to end his season a whole lot earlier than planned.
Rodgers’ speed of recovery also came significantly quicker than anyone expected, even sparking rumors of a potential return should Robert Saleh’s team have made it through to the postseason. In the end, that pipe-dream slowly slipped away and the legendary quarterback’s attention quickly turned towards 2024.
If he can avoid another injury nightmare this time around, Rodgers’ passing genius may just be the final piece of the jigsaw for Robert Saleh and Co. With an offense containing talents like Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, and a defense which proved one of the best in the NFL last term, replacing the inadequate Zach Wilson with an all-time great in Rodgers is almost certainly the answer to the Jets’ problems.
How much he has left at the age of 40, and having suffered such a severe injury, remains to be seen when he lines up for take two at MetLife in September.
If he’s anywhere near close to his best, it would take a brave man to bet against Rodgers propelling the Jets into the postseason for the first time since 2010.
Aaron Rodgers is gearing up for what the Jets hope will be his first full season with the team
Early soccer promise
While it still seems a long shot with the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez running riot over in Miami, New York’s two MLS clubs are already poised to make up for underwhelming 2023 seasons.
The arrival of former RB Leipzig maestro Emil Forsberg has added a much-needed creative spark to the Red Bulls’ attack, with Sandro Schwarz’s side up in fourth place in the Eastern Conference after taking 17 points from 11 games.
New York City, meanwhile, is nicely positioned up in seventh with a return of 14 points from their opening 11 fixtures.
Both teams failed to make it into the top seven last time out after the Red Bulls narrowly missed out in eighth and their city rivals slumped to an 11th-place finish.
It is tough to see past a star-studded Miami outfit as eventual MLS Cup winners, but New York’s much-improved duo are well placed to join them in the playoffs.
