Knicks fans say they'll pass on NBA Cup banner at the Garden
Greg Princivil, left, from Middle Island, with his son Gregory Princivil. Credit: Greg Princivil
In the hours after the Knicks’ NBA Cup championship game victory over the Spurs on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, a common question prevailed among the fan base.
Will the Knicks hang a banner in the rafters at the Garden to commemorate the in-season trophy?
Newsday reported Wednesday that they will not, but the discussion continued ahead of Friday night’s home game against the 76ers, the Knicks’ first chance to celebrate at Madison Square Garden.
Should the Knicks raise an NBA Cup banner to the rafters?
"No, I didn't think it was necessary for a midseason tournament,” said Casey Powell, 41, of Rockville Centre. Powell, better known as “CP the Fanchise” in Knicks circles, is the creator of “KnicksFanTV” on YouTube, which has more than 99,000 subscribers.
“I think the celebration for the accomplishment is appropriate, but I applaud the team for focusing on the bigger picture,” Powell said. “They haven't won the NBA title in over 50 years [1973], and that is the biggest accomplishment that they can make this year is going out there, breaking the curse. Then we can have week-long celebrations if that’s the case.”
Before Friday night's game, fans had an opportunity to take pictures with the trophy, which was not brought onto the court. The pregame in-arena celebration was minimal, with no speech by any of the Knicks players or coach Mike Brown. A two-minute video of the Knicks’ best moments from the Cup run was shown on the jumbotron, and the sellout crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
Earlier, Greg Princivil, 42, of Middle Island said, “No banner. No banner at all. I do not think the NBA Cup should be commemorated in that way. I think we should find a different way to commemorate it. But banners should be designated for championships, whether it's an Eastern Conference championship or a division championship — I'm fine with those being off to the side — and obviously an NBA championship.”
The first two teams to win the NBA Cup, the Lakers (2023) and the Bucks (2024), raised banners in their arenas.
“While I wouldn't mind a banner hanging up . . . the Knicks' situation is different than the other teams that have won,” said Justin Hudson, 34, of Wyandanch. “The Bucks have won recently. The Lakers, they win all the time. So I can understand them putting [one] up, whereas we haven't had a championship in 50 years.”
Said Brian Jackson, 34, of the Bronx: “Just being an old-school kind of basketball fan, I would much rather see the NBA championship banner. I do understand it being like, ‘Hey, if you win, this is what you have to [do], it looks good for the overall league.’ I understand that. I understand both sides of the coin, but I'm more so on the side of not hanging it up.
“They're out to have bigger fish to fry, and that's what they should continue to set their eyes on.”
Despite personally not wanting a banner, Powell said 87% of his viewers hoped to see the Knicks raise one. They looked at the Atlantic Division title banners, the most recent being in 2013, and compared it to the NBA Cup.
“People would say, ‘Well, what's the purpose of raising a division banner if you're not going to raise this one?’” Powell said. “So to my surprise, there were a lot of people who wanted to see them raise that banner. But I agree with the direction that the team took.”
Dix Hills native Justin Silberlust, 27, runs “Forever Next Year NY,” a community for suffering New York sports fans. A Knicks fan himself, Silberlust said it was a “surreal feeling” to see the team win the NBA Cup. But he also does not want to see a banner and said the team should find other ways to celebrate it, such as displaying the trophy inside the Garden.
“The community, the people I've talked to, feel the same way that this is a great thing that happened,” he said. “As Knicks fans, we've been waiting a while for something like this to happen, but I think that the job is not done. The job is not finished, as Kobe [Bryant] would say.”
Newsday''s Matt Lindsay contributed to this story.
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
