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The New York Knicks Have No Business Rejecting Championship Banners
The Knicks’ refusal to raise an NBA Cup banner undermines the achievement, disrespects fans, and hurts the league’s push to legitimize the in-season tournament.The New York Knicks haven’t won an NBA championship since 1973, so the celebration from players and fans alike after they won the NBA Cup on Tuesday night with a 124-113 win over the San Antonio Spurs was justifiably cathartic. It was the team’s first major trophy in more than 50 years, something that should be immortalized with a Madison Square Garden banner.The Knicks apparently disagree.Knicks will not raise an NBA Cup banner at Madison Square Garden, per league source. NYK doesn't want to diminish accomplishment but has bigger goals in mind, winning title in June, source said. NYK is very proud of players & staff winning NBA Cup and will celebrate…— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) December 17, 2025 The Knicks seemingly don’t want to diminish this NBA Cup accomplishment, but that’s exactly what they’re doing. The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks, the first two Cup winners, raised banners for their victories, even though both won NBA championships in the 2020s. Yet New York, whose championship drought is older than the majority of its fans, is above hanging a banner? Come on.Madison Square Garden has a banner celebrating the Knicks’ most recent Atlantic Division title in 2013, as well as banners celebrating concert runs at the iconic venue by Billy Joel and Harry Styles. Apparently, visiting musicians’ concerts at MSG are bigger accomplishments than its beloved NBA tenant winning a major trophy. This stance is doing a disservice to the team, its fans, and the league as a whole.Knicks fans have had a running gag for years of putting minor, trivial accomplishments on fake banners on social media because it’s been so long since the team had a real one. A few examples below:But now that the Knicks have an actual accomplishment to put in the rafters, they don’t want it? An NBA spokesperson told Boardroom that New York’s reported move is a team decision.It’s also bad for the league. The NBA is trying to legitimize the NBA Cup as a major tentpole event on the annual basketball calendar. It’s why you see the brightly colored cup courts across the league every year. It’s why the semifinals and finals have been played in Las Vegas over the first three years of the event, something that will reportedly change moving forward. It’s why each winning player earns more than $500,000 for winning the cup, an amount Karl-Anthony Towns will donate to his foundation in the Dominican Republic and an amount that nearly doubles Kevin McCullar‘s 2025-26 salary. Teams that don’t raise a banner after winning the NBA Cup unquestionably undermine its importance, and that’s exactly what the Knicks are doing with this decision.NBA Commissioner Adam Silver launched the Cup in the first place to mimic the in-season cup tournaments in European soccer that give fan bases an extra chance to celebrate winning tournaments without winning championships, something that’s even more difficult in European soccer leagues that don’t have playoffs like American sports leagues do. True champions in Europe celebrate all their trophy wins, no matter how small.❤️💙🏆 Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo and win the Sextuple!🔵 Ligue 1⚪ Coupe de France🔴 Trophée des Champions🇪🇺 UEFA Champions League🇪🇺 UEFA Supercup🌍 FIFA Intercontinental Cup pic.twitter.com/YwAYkm0jwD— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 17, 2025 St. Mirren, a Scottish soccer team, was founded in 1877 and has never won the Scottish Premier League, which was founded in 1890. But when it defeated mighty Celtic on Sunday for its first Scottish League Cup title since 2013, the fans were going crazy after winning a major trophy.“When you see banners, when you see the fans’ reaction, I’m quite happy for my players to have it,” St. Mirren manager Stephen Robinson said after the win, “They’re the ones that’ll be remembered forever. I want to see their name and their pictures all around the stadium like the other teams that have won trophies.”St. Mirren has won five major trophies in its 148-year history and proudly hangs banners celebrating its success. The Knicks just won their third major trophy in their 80-year history after being founded in 1946, yet they don’t want to fly a banner because the NBA Cup is somehow beneath them?The team may want to focus on bigger things like the actual NBA championship, and will reportedly celebrate at Friday’s game against Philadelphia, but it can both look ahead to April, May, and June while acknowledging its December to remember. If the Knicks only win the division but don’t make the NBA Finals, I bet the teams and fans will look back and wish they raised this NBA Cup banner.Also, let’s not pretend the Knicks are too high-and-mighty to hype themselves up over anything short of winning the NBA championship. When they reached the conference finals for the first time since 2000 earlier this year, the Knicks were happy to oblige when New York City renamed street corners in Manhattan after all its players. West 11th St. and 7th Ave. became Jalen Brunson Boulevard, 6th Ave. and Houston St. was temporarily renamed Delon Wright Circle, and 6th Avenue and West Washington Place became Precious Achiuwa Place. Stay Ahead of the Game, Get Our NewslettersSubscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.“We thank Mayor Adams and Commissioner Rodriguez for this recognition,” MSG COO Jamaal Lesane said in May. “As the playoffs continue, the Knicks will continue to look for opportunities to spread excitement and bring people together through their shared passion for the team.”The Knicks were OK with hanging signs across Manhattan street corners for not making the Finals, but the conference finals, and are now unwilling to hang a banner for actually winning something? Make it make sense!Bottom line: The Knicks haven’t won enough to reject raising banners for actually winning something, especially when the first two NBA Cup winners with championships under their belt over the last five years still chose to raise their franchises’ victories to the rafters. When other teams do the right thing in the future and raise NBA Cup banners, the Knicks’ silly omission will look even more dumb in hindsight.The Knicks still have an opportunity to change course and make it right. In a season in which so many good decisions are being made both on and off the court, refusing to raise the NBA Cup banner is unquestionably a bad one.Read More:101125post6ORdate 
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Shlomo SprungShlomo Sprung is a Senior Staff Writer at Boardroom. He has more than a decade of experience in journalism, with past work appearing in Forbes, MLB.com, Awful Announcing, and The Sporting News. He graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2011, and his Twitter and Spotify addictions are well under control. Just ask him.