Quietly, 2016 slipped away without bringing a championship to New York City, which means that for the first time in 48 years, we have endured a five-year window in Fun City without throwing a party for ourselves. The quiet zone of 2011-2016 pales to the last great drought (the ’62 Yankees through the ’68 Jets). Back then, just about every team under the flag of New York was on the verge of implosion.

It’s different this time.

For 2017 dawns with intrigue for several of our local squads, many of which made terrific inroads in 2016 toward some glorious future moment. The Giants will be first up to see where this leads, thanks to a 2016 that snapped a four-year skid of zero playoff appearances and a three-year stretch of zero winning seasons; when they begin their playoff push next week, they will do it buoyed by the memory that theirs was the last great push to capture the city’s imagination.

The Rangers certainly have the goods to make a Stanley Cup run this year; it took the eventual Cup champs, the Penguins, to eliminate them last year, after all. After that comes a summer when the Mets hope the full replenishment of their pitching staff can echo 2015’s magical run and extend their thwarted one-game playoff push in ’16; and the Yankees, still probably a couple years away, who still ought to provide plenty of buzz in the coming seasons as the install the parts they hope will lead to future glories.

Not everyone is pointing due north, of course: The Islanders and Devils already may be playing out the string. The Jets are a three-ring circus, with no immediate help in sight. And if the Knicks are as interesting as they’ve been in years, they’re still light years from lighting up the Canyon of Heroes. It’s still a slog for some of us.

For the others … who knows? We just might be entering a new golden era. You never can tell.

Team of the Year

The Giants started the year changing coaches (amid howls they should’ve done the same thing with the general manager) and going on a defensive spending spree; they closed it having clinched a playoff berth in 15 games, amid league-wide chatter of you-don’t-want-to-face-these-guys. Regardless of what the playoffs bring, they’re back atop the city’s sporting pantheon. They edge the Mets, who were left for dead in August and roared to an ill-fated wild-card berth.

Athlete of the Year

A clear two-man race. Last year’s winner, Odell Beckham Jr., easily could have repeated, because he remains the single greatest force in New York sports, capable of oh-wow moments anywhere on the field. But Kristaps Porzingis has done something even more impressive: By himself, he has planted seeds of hope among Knicks fans, whose optimism had lain barren for so many years. KP6 over OBJ by a smidge.

Coach/Manager of the Year

Oh my, the howls of protest that are coming. But yes, we’re making Terry Collins a back-to-back winner, for the way he kept the Mets on the fringe of contention for 4 ½ months, long enough to allow the cavalry to come and deliver a second straight playoff bid for only the second time in franchise history. We suspect there will be other opportunities for Ben McAdoo.

Comeback of the Year

He may never attain the status or the aura he once had. But before going down with a sports hernia in Week 13, Jason Pierre-Paul had become a genuine threat again on the Giants’ D-line. Consider that in 2015, trying to get used to the new reality of his damaged hand, he had but one sack and 26 tackles in eight games; through 12 games this year, he collected seven sacks and 53 tackles and opponents once again were including him prominently in game plans.

Moment of the Year

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OK, so it wasn’t “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” — or the heart-tugging soirees for Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera in recent years. Still, in a season when Yankees fans were locked on the future, the evening of Aug. 12 allowed two rare opportunities: chanting for Alex Rodriguez to play third base (he did, for one hitter) and seeing Joe Girardi cry (boy, did he ever, when the game was over). Then A-Rod was gone, off to TV and whatever else awaits the greatest enigma ever to wear pinstripes.