The New York Knicks were the third team to win the NBA Cup Championship, but the first not to hang a banner commemorating it. Team governor James Dolan told hosts Craig Carton and Chris McMonigle after the team that the decision was strategic. They'd hang a banner, just not until they won The Finals in June.
While the quip was certainly funny, it was also the unnecessary style of guarantee that tends to rub fans the wrong way. Dolan was well aware of the risks of asserting that a championship was within their grasp, especially with the Knicks having failed to make the NBA Finals in each of the past 26 seasons. That didn't stop him.
Just over five months later, New York's basketball team is one win away from their first championship in 53 seasons. That'd be one heck of a way to follow up on Dolan's guarantee. The team would surely hang a banner for their NBA title victory, but they'd also have options no other team in NBA history has ever been able to boast.
Knicks are one win away from having banner banner options
The first two NBA Cup winners, the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks, both failed to win a playoff series. The Knicks have already won three, and are just one win away from their fourth of the postseason.
It's only right that their final series is against the San Antonio Spurs, the exact team they beat for their most lucrative victory in Las Vegas last December.
Aside from the message to take the In-Season Tournament seriously, though, the Cup rematch happening in The Finals brings additional layers of drama. If the Knicks do end the Spurs' season, it would immediately become time to raise some important questions.
Do they hang two banners: one for the NBA Cup, and one for the NBA Playoff Championship? Do they hang one, commemorating the results of both tournaments? Or do they opt simply to make entirely good on Dolan's initial December promise, hanging just the championship banner?
The choice would be theirs, and whatever the Knicks wound up deciding would immediately become the new championship standard. It wouldn't matter if pundits continued to claim that San Antonio has the more talented roster. It wouldn't even matter if they projected Victor Wembanyama's squad as the championship favorite in each of the next five seasons.
The Knicks would be the champions, and any "problems" would be their pleasure. They just have to win a game before the Spurs win three.
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