Celtics' playoff elimination vs. Knicks continues hard-to-believe streak for defending NBA champions

How much parity is there in the NBA right now? No reigning champ has been past the second round since 2019

Just a few years ago, fans were consistently complaining about the lack of parity in the NBA. The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers met in four consecutive NBA Finals from 2015-2018, leading to countless talking-head discussions about whether the league had become too predictable.

Well, so much for that.

The Boston Celtics were eliminated from the 2025 playoffs on Friday night with a 119-81 loss to the New York Knicks, which means that no defending NBA champion has advanced past the second round since the Warriors made the Finals in 2019. The lack of a repeat champion is relatively understandable given the uncertainty of health and circumstance in the postseason, but for a defending champ to not even make the conference finals is pretty unbelievable.

Here's how the title-holders have fared over the last six seasons:

Early exits for recent champs

• 2020: Golden State Warriors (Missed playoffs with 16-49 record)
• 2021: Los Angeles Lakers (First-round loss to Phoenix Suns)
• 2022: Milwaukee Bucks (Second-round loss to Boston Celtics)
• 2023: Golden State Warriors (Second-round loss to Los Angeles Lakers)
• 2024: Denver Nuggets (Second-round loss to Minnesota Timberwolves)
• 2025: Boston Celtics (Second-round loss to New York Knicks)

A few of these teams dealt with significant injury issues, including this year's Celtics who lost Jayson Tatum to an Achilles injury at the end of Game 4 against the Knicks, but the others simply weren't able to get past the constantly improving competition in back-to-back seasons.

With the Knicks, Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers and either the Nuggets or Oklahoma City Thunder heading to the conference finals, it's fair to say that the field is wide-open. Anyone hoisting the trophy besides the Thunder -- who finished with the league's best record and are the +130 favorites to win the title on DraftKings -- would be considered an upset based on how the teams entered the postseason.

The Wolves were in 10th place in the Western Conference on March 1. The Pacers entered the new year at 16-18. The Nuggets fired their coach and general manager with just days remaining in the regular season. And the Knicks went 0-10 against the league's three best teams this year in the regular season.

We will have a new champion for the seventh straight NBA season, and with the financial restrictions facing high-spending teams moving forward it's going to be extremely difficult to maintain a roster with superstars and quality role players. Therefore, this trend could reasonably continue for the foreseeable future.