The New York Knicks won the NBA Cup, but you won’t find any evidence of that in their home arena.
According to ESPN, the Knicks will not raise a commemorative NBA Cup championship banner in Madison Square Garden, the iconic Midtown Manhattan arena where they play their home games. This bucks the trend of previous winners hanging banners in their arenas; after their 2023 victory, the Lakers raised an NBA Cup banner at Crypto.com Arena and the Bucks hung one in Fiserv Forum after their Cup title last year.
This reflects the difference of opinion teams have held with the NBA Cup. The decision also may have come as a surprise to Knicks coach Mike Brown, who struck a different tone in his postgame press conference Tuesday, Dec. 16, after New York defeated the San Antonio Spurs to claim the 2025 NBA Cup.
‘The most positive is being able to hang a banner in MSG,’ Brown said, ‘the most iconic arena in the league.’
Multiple Knicks players were asked the question about whether they would want a banner raised to commemorate the title, and responses were mixed.
From Karl-Anthony Towns (‘The Cup is special … we going to hold this Cup championship dear to our heart’), to Josh Hart (‘Ah, man, I don’t know. I’ll let y’all decide that. Someone’s going to be mad whatever we do’), Knicks players appeared to be caught in the balance of celebrating the achievement, while understanding that the grind of the NBA season wears on.
The Knicks last hung a banner after the 1998-99 season, when the Knicks won the Eastern Conference but lost in the NBA Finals to the Spurs.
New York’s next home game will be Friday, Dec. 19 against the Philadelphia 76ers.
‘I don’t think we’re having a parade, one,’ Jalen Brunson said after the game. ‘To the city of New York, I think it’s good that we won this. I think the way we won it is special as well. … This is great and now we’re going to enjoy this, but once we leave tomorrow, we’re moving on.’
(This story was updated to add a video.)
