Knicks guard Jalen Brunson speaks after the championship parade
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson speaks after the championship parade
The Knicks will raise their championship banner on Oct. 20 and then get the Philadelphia 76ers at Madison Square Garden. It is not a soft first night for a team trying to enjoy one last championship celebration.
Philadelphia arrives with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown added to a roster that already had real talent. The game will be on NBC and Peacock, so Jalen Brunson and the Knicks will go from a banner ceremony to one of the league’s biggest stages before the night is over.
I love this for New York. The banner deserved a loud building, a major audience, and an opponent capable of making the first game feel important. The Knicks will not get to hide behind the early-season excuse if the night gets messy.
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson celebrates the championship at a city ceremony
Jalen Brunson speaks after the Knicks championship parade. Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
The Knicks will have to earn the opening-night celebration
The Sixers are no longer a routine division matchup. James gives them a late-game organizer, and Brown brings another player who can punish a defense that loads up on the first option.
New York will have the home crowd and the emotion of the ceremony. After the opening tip, none of that will matter much. The Knicks need to defend, take care of the ball, and find a way to make Philadelphia work on every possession.
Opening night puts the Knicks title defense on display
There is nothing wrong with treating this as a measuring stick. It will not decide the Eastern Conference in October, but it will show how ready the champs are for the attention that comes with being the team everyone wants to knock off.
Brunson has handled those moments before. He will get another one right away, with a banner hanging above him and a rival that has spent the summer trying to close the gap.