Knicks will not hang a banner for NBA Cup win, per report

The New York Knicks finally captured an NBA championship ... well sort of. The Knicks outlasted the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup championship game Tuesday night to win 124-113 and become the third NBA Cup champions since its inception in 2023. But amidst all the celebration and happiness amongst the players who all get a nice $530,000 bonus to top it off, the Knicks don't plan on recognizing the accomplishment with a banner.

The Knicks plan to celebrate the win at their home game Friday against the Philadelphia 76ers, but according to SNY's Ian Begley, are not planning on hanging a banner to not distract from their bigger goal in mind: winning the NBA Finals.

That's a tad surprising given Knicks coach Mike Brown talked about hanging a banner in Madison Square Garden following the Cup win, when asked how this win will propel them to accomplish their ultimate goal of bringing home the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.

"You've got to give [NBA commissioner] Adam [Silver] a lot of credit, and the NBA league office to create an environment like this, because it helps us coaches add pressure to your group early in the season," Brown said. "This is a single elimination tournament when you get to a certain point, so every game counts. There's pressure on every game if you expect to be who you think you are, and so that pressure is manufactured without you, as a coach, having to try to do it all the time. And when you're able to have success doing it, it breeds confidence in everybody within the organization, and 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. So there's a lot of positives about it, but the most positive is being able to hang a banner up in MSG, the most iconic arena in the league you've always you."

Despite Brown's excitement on hanging a banner in MSG, the Knicks will become the first NBA Cup champion to not hang a banner. The Los Angeles Lakers were reluctant to hang a banner at first in 2023 when they won, given they don't hang banners for anything other than NBA championships, including conference or division championships. However, they reversed course and hung a banner after all.

The Milwaukee Bucks also celebrated their accomplishment with a banner in 2024, hanging it next to their NBA championship banner from 1971. But the Knicks won't follow suit of the two former champions on this. It's understandable, given they want to keep the focus on winning the bigger title, but perhaps that might change if the league office twists the Knicks' arm to recognize their championship given they want to bring as much positive attention to the NBA Cup as possible.

For now, the Knicks will just celebrate the win without much fanfare and hope it can propel them to an NBA Finals win in June.