As NBA offseason begins, all eyes are on Antetokounmpo and James

And just like that, it's next season in the NBA.

The New York Knicks were feted with a championship parade through the streets of Manhattan on Thursday after a postseason in which they successfully rallied from six double-digit deficits to win games in the playoffs, including all four of their victories in the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.

It continued the unprecedented run of NBA parity, with eight different franchises winning championships in the last eight seasons — Toronto in 2019, the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, Milwaukee in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Denver in 2023, Boston in 2024, Oklahoma City last year and now New York.

"To me, it just really speaks to the state of NBA basketball and the state of the future of the game," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. "And now, with this draft class coming in this year — again, not just the first pick, but a draft that's considered the deepest in many years — there's so much talent everywhere. So, it's a really bright future ahead for the league."

It is, but every team is now chasing the Knicks. They had all the answers.

For 29 other franchises, at least on some level, there seems to only be questions.

• Will Milwaukee really trade Giannis Antetokounmpo after 13 seasons, 10 All-Star selections, two Most Valuable Player awards and an NBA championship in 2021?

• Will LeBron James come back to the NBA for a 24th season? If so, will it be with the Los Angeles Lakers for a ninth year? Or will he look for a, presumably, final chapter somewhere else?

• What will Washington do with the No 1 pick in the draft later this month?

• And, who will coach in Dallas and Portland?

Those are just some of the major issues facing teams around the league as summer gets underway.

It's going to be hard for the Knicks to repeat, because it's hard for any team to repeat — as the Thunder found out this season.

"The history of the NBA is littered with teams that were not able to find ultimate success again," Thunder general manager Sam Presti said. "I think there have only been three teams that have repeated since we've been in Oklahoma City, and the reasons for that are many, probably too many to list. But, the fact is, it helps illustrate how rare and how special it is when you do have a chance to win at the highest level in this league, or in professional sports in general.

"However, NBA history is also built on the backs of those teams that saw their losses as a continued quest for improvement and progress. Most importantly, they saw it as what competition boils down to, what it's all about at any level of sports."