New York City
The rafters themselves are nothing special, just a useful space to house lighting and air conditioning. They are dull and dull, lucky to be able to constantly bask in a golden hue that hides their imperfections.
But to rise there, to hang on the edges like a beautiful curtain, is to obtain an honor reserved for the luckiest of the lucky.
Madison Square Garden serves many purposes. It is a concert hall and a hockey rink. Bull riders invest its limits once a year. Monster trucks too. And on the rarest occasions, for very special brides, people celebrate their wedding here.
But above all, it stands as a basketball court, the epicenter of a basketball city whose playing courts gave birth to legends, some whose skills spread around the world and others whose traditions lived only in their neighborhood parks.
Tuesday evening, the rafters of the Garden welcomed the only banner that matters. Fittingly, it took him a while to get to his new home. Attached to two pulleys, it snaked from the ground to above the center court scoreboard, rising casually and methodically above the court floor before finally parking to the left of the M at Madison Square Garden.
After all, a piece of fabric that took 53 years to put together shouldn’t have its moment of glory in a hurry. The last time Knicks fans gathered here, they were left in stunned delirium, after watching their team come back from 29 points down to win Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.
It was just crazy. On the streets of downtown, fans came out in their championship jerseys and gear, some simple and very bedazzled. A marketing genius drove a glass-sided bus around the block from the Garden, declaring that fans should take a photo of the trophy inside (the bus had Abu Dhabi Tourism logos on it, so probably not), while people headed toward the turnstiles, unconcerned by what Forbes said was the highest price of admission to an NBA opener in league history.
As the usual suspects – Mariska Hargitay and Spike Lee – took their seats in court alongside Roger Goodell and Jon Bon Jovi, the Garden faithful filled the square ahead of the 6:30 p.m. ceremony. They honored old stars to welcome new ones to their championship club – 1973 championship maestro Walt Frazier handed out the rings – but saved their mayhem for their more recent heroes.
OG Anunoby, the “hand of God” in Game 4, received a loud ovation, as did Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.
But no one has brought the house down like Jalen Brunson. The Knicks captain reflected on his new comedic skills, honed during a stint hosting “Saturday Night Live,” and thanked the crowd for sticking around for Game 4. He then hit the right note, saying that while he liked the goodwill he felt this summer, he’d like to “replicate that this year.”
“Let’s raise a championship,” he finished as the banner headed upwards.
Of course, nowhere is fame more fleeting than in sports. Banners may last forever, but success has a very short shelf life. Before the glitter on the Knicks’ meat hook-sized rings stopped sparkling, the NBA got everyone excited to embrace the new season.
In a deliberate confluence of brilliant planning, marketing and basketball business, the league arranged for the New York Kings to have their on-court coronation the same night they welcomed the King to their backyard.
LeBron James, 41 years old and looking for a team that could help him write the final chapter of his career, revealed his fourth NBA jersey, suiting up for the 76ers.
Booed during the introduction and greeted with chants of “We didn’t want you” – referencing James’ admission that he had considered New York before winning the title – James and the Philadelphia 76ers came away with the last laugh in a 106-100 victory.
“It’s encouraging,” 76ers head coach Nick Nurse said. “I think the intention of what everyone did is good. I’m really happy to come here and get a win. This is a heck of a team, and when I wake up tomorrow, I’ll probably forget about this.”
That may not be the case for New York, at least not so quickly. As the Sixers absorbed shot after shot and refused to fold, reality returned with at least a groan, if not a thud. New York fans quickly lost their joy, trading it for exasperation. They shouted their exasperation to those in charge and implored, more than cajoled, their team with “C’mon New York.”
It’s ridiculous to suggest that the first game of an 82-game body of work could be a must-win, but in Philadelphia, where disaster usually comes with an extra pile of despair, it was pretty close.
Reeling from the end of their quarterback’s season and the unofficial end of the Eagles’ hopes, the city is almost at the limit. The hottest topics range from Nick Sirianni’s job security to Jalen Hurts’ treatment of blood clots, but neither one exactly spells good news. The Flyers were done before they started and the Phillies were long gone.
Into the abyss walks the most gullible potential hero. No one in town has turned to the Sixers for bailout in years, accustomed to a process that never came to fruition. Philly hasn’t really tasted the Eastern Conference Finals since 2001, putting coaches through a revolving door as it refused to fix what really ailed the franchise.
But this offseason, the owners finally took action, bringing in Golden State genius architect Bob Myers and Mike Gansey. Together, the two reworked Philly’s fortunes, pulling off a move for Jaylen Brown from the Celtics, then using that — along with the courage of Tyrese Maxey — to lure James, among others, to Philadelphia.
It created a fever dream for Philly, a team built not just to take baby steps toward success, but to sprint toward it.
The first effort was hardly a work of art. The Sixers’ starting five made just 29 of their 71 field goals, regularly looking exactly like what they are — a team still learning to connect all of its disparate parts.
But no one came here hoping to solve all the puzzles at once.
“It’s obviously a marathon,” James said. “But the first day, the sixth, the seventh, whatever, the experience that we have, we want it to translate into wins and more of a culture – a championship culture.”
Perhaps one that ends with a banner celebration of their own.
Gn sports
