Barbara Barker: Huge, pricey turnout for maybe LeBron's last visit to Madison Square Garden
Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks hits a three point basket against LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers during the first quarter at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026 in New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
They came hoping to see history.
Make that, they came with loads of cash hoping to see history. And in the process, the fans at Madison Square Garden made some history themselves Sunday.
With 41-year-old LeBron James possibly playing his final game at the Garden, spectators shelled out an average of $1,084.48 on the secondary market to attend the Lakers-Knicks game, according to Seat Geek. That set a record for most expensive regular-season game, topping the average resale price of $977.42 for the final game of Kobe Bryant’s career in 2016.
Yet it likely wasn’t James whom fans left the game talking about.
Sure, he gave them a respectable if not history-making 22 points. But even combined with Luka Doncic’s 30 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists, it wasn’t enough to get his team past the red-hot Knicks, who extended their winning streak to six games with a 112-100 victory.
The big takeaway is that the Knicks suddenly are looking like a team with a lot of weapons who like playing together, something that just two weeks ago was so much in doubt that fans were practically demanding that management break them up and make a major trade.
The Knicks (31-18) again won with an impressive team effort on both offense and defense.
When All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns were struggling to find and make good shots, others stepped up, and six players finished in double figures. OG Anunoby had 25 points and eight rebounds. Landry Shamet had 23 points off the bench, shooting 6-for-10 from three-point range. Josh Hart added 20 points, Brunson had 13 assists and Towns grabbed 13 rebounds.
“It’s gonna be somebody different every night,” Shamet said. “Our group has bought into that. It’s about all of us buying in, doing what we can on a night-to-night basis. We have a locker room full of guys who want to win and are willing to sacrifice for one another.”
It took some tough times to arrive at this point. Immediately before this streak began, the Knicks went through a dismal stretch in which they lost nine of 11 games to drop from 23-9 to 25-18. One of the major improvements since then has been their defense.
In the 2-9 stretch, the Knicks allowed an average of 117.4 points per game. In the 6-0 streak, they have given up an average of 91.8 points.
The Knicks held the Lakers to 44 points after halftime. Like most teams in the NBA, they couldn’t slow Doncic, but they were impressive almost everywhere else, especially on the perimeter. They held the Lakers to 28.6% shooting from three-point range (12-for-42).
“I think the biggest part of our defense has been our communication, physicality and accountability without having to point fingers and say who was wrong and who wasn’t,” Brunson said. “Just kind of being on the string and being on the same page is the biggest part of our turnaround so far.”
The early part of the night was all about James. Although he has made no retirement announcement, he is in the last year of his two-year, $101 million deal with the Lakers. It seems likely that he will not retire without some sort of Bryant-like retirement tour, but fans and media apparently didn’t want to leave things to chance.
A playoff-like atmosphere filled the Garden before the game as celebrities mingled on the court with former Knicks players and high-roller fans. Though the majority of those in attendance were Knicks fans, there also was significant support for James.
He was cheered when he was introduced before the game. An hour before it began, he was announced as an All-Star reserve, named to his 22nd All-Star Game in his 23 seasons.
James has made three more All-Star teams than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is second in league history. He was not named an All-Star as a rookie but has made it every season since (he missed last season’s game because of an injury).
Knicks coach Mike Brown coached James early in his career and the two went to the NBA Finals together in 2007 with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Yeah, I feel like I’ve been around some great players,’’ Brown said, “and you knew he was special . . . You saw some of it, being around him on a daily basis, and man, just talking to him about different schemes and different things and then listening to him, like how he feels and sees things on the floor, and you just knew he had a chance to be great. You could feel it.”
James has long called the Garden his “favorite playground,” and indeed he has had his fair share of fun here at the Knicks’ expense, including 52- and 50-point efforts.
James has a 23-9 record in the regular season and a 1-1 postseason mark at MSG. He entered Sunday’s game averaging 28.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 7.4 assists here, shooting 49.5% from the field and 38.1% from three-point range.
This night, however, was all about the Knicks.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
