The Knicks’ opening night has the potential to be one of Madison Square Garden’s most expensive tickets ever—and not just because they’ll unveil their championship banner and hand out rings.
The NBA began rolling out its 2026–27 schedule Tuesday with Sixers–Knicks being the opening night headliner on NBC on Oct. 20. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET. Tickets for Sixers–Knicks are already fetching roughly $2,200 on SeatGeek following Tuesday’s announcement.
Celtics–Pistons will be the first game of the season at 3 p.m., and Thunder–Spurs will follow Sixers–Knicks at 9:30 p.m. in a Western Conference Finals rematch.
The Knicks will be hosting the new-look Sixers featuring Jaylen Brown, and LeBron James joining Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and V.J. Edgecombe. The two teams met in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, which the Knicks swept 4–0.
The game will come on ring night, with the Knicks receiving their championship rings for winning their first title since 1973. The team will also raise a championship banner.
Playoff tickets during the Knicks’ championship run fetched record prices, with a pair of celebrity seats going for as high as $1 million for Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Those tickets were part of an auction to benefit the Garden of Dreams foundation and were won by law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Veritas Capital. Get-in prices for the same game on the secondary market reached $8,000.
The LeBron TV Bounce
James’s decision to sign with the Sixers has massive implications for the team’s national broadcast schedule. The NBA is starting the team off with a tough opening week with the Knicks on Oct. 20 and the Cavaliers’ season-opener right after on the 22nd.
Sources previously told Front Office Sports that the Sixers are expected to have 34 games on national television–the maximum a team can have.
