The New York Knicks won the NBA Cup Tuesday night, but won’t hang a banner in Madison Square Garden to go with its NBA titles from 1970 and ‘73.
The two other franchises who have won the NBA Cup, the Lakers in 2023 and Bucks in 2024, both raised banners in their home arenas.
The Knicks will recognize the victory at its next home game on Friday, but is keeping its focus on winning an NBA championship in the summer, a source close to the situation tells Front Office Sports. The Knicks lost to the Pacers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals last season, and subsequently fired head coach Tom Thibodeau.
“That pressure is manufactured without you as a coach having to try to do it all the time,” new head coach Mike Brown said after the win. “When you’re able to have success doing it, it breeds confidence in everybody within the organization. That can propel you come the right time when you’re in that environment to be able to handle the pressure because you’ve already been through it.”
On Tuesday night, the New York Post reported Brown told the team before the game that a banner would go up in MSG if they won. The Post also reported that the league does not require teams to do so.
The Knicks and owner James Dolan have a recent history of feuds with the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver, including demanding to see the league office’s budget, blasting the league’s new media rights deals, voting against WNBA expansion, accusing Silver of favoring the Raptors in a long-running dispute with the team, and accusing the league of retaliatory “harassment.” The Knicks declined to answer questions, including whether Dolan himself decided against the banner.
A spokesperson for the NBA did not immediately respond to questions.
The NBA Cup, previously called the In-Season Tournament, will dole out $530,933 to each player on the winning team. Each player on the runner-up San Antonio Spurs will get $212,373.
