NEW YORK — The New York Knicks are happy to have won the NBA Cup. Apparently just not quite that happy.
The team will not raise a banner at Madison Square Garden to commemorate their championship from the league’s in-season tournament, a person with knowledge of the decision said Wednesday. The person said the Knicks are proud of the achievement but are also focused on bigger goals
The Knicks do plan to celebrate the title in front of their fans Friday, when they host the Philadelphia 76ers while playing their first home game since winning the championship by beating the San Antonio Spurs 124-113 on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
However, New York won’t join the previous winners of the NBA Cup in marking the achievement with a banner, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because there was no public announcement. The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks both raised banners after winning the NBA Cup in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
There’s certainly plenty of room for a banner at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks have won only two NBA titles, the most recent in 1973, and haven’t won a title of any kind since winning the Atlantic Division in the 2012-13 season, which they marked that with a banner.
It appeared they planned to do so for this championship, with coach Mike Brown saying after the victory against the Spurs that winning the tournament provided a lot of positives for the team.
“But the most positive is being able to hang a banner up in MSG, the most iconic arena in the league,” Brown said.
In the NBA Cup final — which does not count toward either team’s regular-season record, meaning both teams remained 18-7 — OG Anunoby scored 28 points and Jalen Brunson had 25 as the Knicks rallied to beat San Antonio.
“This is great and we’re going to enjoy this,” Brunson said. “But once we leave tomorrow, we’re moving on.”
New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns added 16 points and 11 rebounds despite battling a calf injury.
San Antonio rookie Dylan Harper came off the bench to lead the Spurs with 21 points, while Victor Wembanyama scored 18 and De’Aaron Fox had 16 for the NBA Cup runners-up.
New York dominated inside, outrebounding the Spurs 59-42, with Mitchell Robinson collecting 15 boards, including 10 on the offensive end in 18 minutes. That helped give the Knicks a 56-44 edge in points in the lane.
The Spurs, however, led for much of the game before the Knicks went on a 13-1 run that began late in the third quarter to go up 100-95. New York never trailed again.
“After 25 games in, I believe that we’ve shown some signs that we can be a pretty good team,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “We’ve also shown that we have a lot of areas of improvement. I think that’s where we were living today.”
The Knicks got more than a trophy. Each player with a standard contract got an extra $318,560 for winning, making the total $530,933 for even reaching the title game.
The Spurs had to settle for $212,373 each.
Just making the final bodes well for both teams. The previous four finalists — the Lakers, Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Bucks — also made the playoffs that season. The Pacers made the Eastern Conference title series in 2024, and the Thunder won the NBA championship last season.