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Like a thief in the night, the Knicks raised their NBA Cup banner.
After James Dolan originally balked at recognizing Adam Silver’s beloved tournament, a “2025 NBA Cup champions” banner was stealthily hung Tuesday — hours before the Knicks celebrated the bigger championship on ring night.
“I haven’t seen it yet,” coach Mike Brown said of the NBA Cup banner. “But I think it’s just a recognition of what our journey was like last year. There were obviously a lot of ups and downs throughout the course of the year and our guys rallied and figured out a way to win the NBA Cup. It’s just a recognition to not just our guys, but the fans out there. We got fantastic fans, and to be able to show a little love to them is pretty neat.”
The Knicks beat the Spurs to win the NBA Cup in December, which represented Dolan’s first opportunity to raise a championship banner since the Atlantic Division title in 2013.
But Dolan became the first owner to decline raising the NBA Cup banner, telling WFAN in January, “We want an NBA championship, we don’t want some consolation prize.”
Dolan caused a stir because Silver had been propping up the NBA Cup as a significant tournament. The Knicks then became the first team to win the NBA Cup and the NBA championship.
They raised both banners on the same day, although the NBA Cup’s appeared out of nowhere and was tucked in the corner.
When considering the face of his league to replace LeBron James and Stephen Curry, Silver identified Jalen Brunson.
“It’s hard not to start with Jalen Brunson,” Silver said Tuesday on ESPN. “I’ll be down when they hang the banner tonight for the championship. Here’s a guy who was a second-round pick, was picked up as a free agent from Dallas, and nobody talked about him as the next superstar in the league, but look how he’s led that team to a championship.”
Brunson, 30, certainly wasn’t in the mix before leading the Knicks to the 2026 championship. He is older than some of the other candidates — namely Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Cade Cunningham and Victor Wembanyama.
But Brunson has the benefit of the most recent title and the NBA’s biggest market.