Knicks Open Title Defense with Loss as LeBron James and 76ers Play Spoiler
As the New York Knicks celebrated their first title in 53 years with a ring ceremony, LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers spoiled the banner-raising night with a hard-fought victory.
The problem with a city that never sleeps is that too many things happen in it, 24/7. Take, for example, the 129 days that have passed since the New York Knicks completed their unimaginable playoff run and won their first championship in 53 years. During this short time, New York managed to host thousands of shows, performances, and events, including a stormy flash visit by Netanyahu to the UN, Jalen Brunson hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, and a particularly painful day marking 25 years since the September 11 attacks. The city even hosted the World Cup final! Well, actually that happened across the river in New Jersey, but who is counting?
And when so many things happen, at such a high pace, attention disperses quickly. Thus, in stark contrast to the atmosphere surrounding the Knicks last June, when every pub in Manhattan and its surroundings was decorated in orange and blue and packed to the brim with countless fans and enthusiastic bandwagoners, the festive opening night felt much more subdued as the championship banner was raised to the Madison Square Garden ceiling and championship rings were distributed to the heroes.
Make no mistake - in certain circles, the hype was still high. The Garden, at least on this past night and probably throughout most games in the upcoming season, was the place to be and be seen. Top celebrities positioned themselves courtside, and the cheapest ticket to the game stood shortly before tip-off at just over $2,000, which is for a seat from which you would probably struggle to tell Brunson apart from Victor Wembanyama.
Yet despite a few minutes of high-paced action in the first half, the feeling was that even the Knicks themselves struggled to recreate the enthusiasm that clung to them in May-June. Suddenly, tough shots in crunch time—such as the ones Brunson made with his eyes closed and at improbable percentages during the playoffs—turned out to be too short. Suddenly, the energy of Hart, Anunoby, Bridges, and Deuce McBride vanished into thin air. Suddenly, Karl-Anthony Towns reverted to being the talented big man who picks up foul trouble within ten minutes. And suddenly, New York found itself facing a professional and experienced group that gathered this season with one clear goal: to leave the Knicks behind.
"Yeah, I love winning games on the night a team gets its ring," LeBron James said in his post-game interview. Naturally, he would have preferred to be on the side receiving the ring rather than the spoiler side, but his satisfaction with celebrating on the Knicks' head was evident, and Philadelphia was surely glad to see that even at 41 years and ten months old, his competitive drive has not faded. There is no doubt LeBron will take a step back this season. He has three players on his team capable of scoring 30-35 points every game (Embiid, Brown, and Maxey), and that is even before the jump Edgecombe is supposed to make. Still, King James played 34 minutes and, at his advanced age, pushed Shamet, fought under the basket, and was not far from a triple-double.
Philly still has a long way to go before it can dream of approaching what New York achieved last season, but at least for a first game, in front of the nation and in the champion's house, it can be more than satisfied. It did not fall apart when the Knicks surged to a 10-point lead in the second quarter and, above all, it did not let New York make a dramatic comeback like the ones we saw so many times in the recent playoffs.
Amidst the sea of stories surrounding this game, from the emotional pre-game ceremony led by Walt Frazier and Mike Breen, through LeBron's debut, Tyrese Maxey's 28 points, and Brunson's disappointing evening, it was impossible to ignore Jaylen Brown. A short while after Boston blew a huge lead and lost in Detroit, once again demonstrating the losing culture that has clung to it and led to the summer revolution, he began his new life as a fourth wheel. The last person to be this "overqualified" to be a team's fourth-best player was Draymond Green on the Warriors with Durant, Steph, and Klay. Brown provided a few moments of magic and beyond that was fairly quiet, and he and the Celtics will be tested against each other throughout the season until one side is declared the winner of the trade. In the meantime, it is a small-big 1:0 for Jaylen Brown.
And since in the NBA there is no time to stop, another coast-to-coast game awaits Philadelphia on the night between Thursday and Friday, this time in Cleveland, and the night after that, the Knicks travel to Boston for the battle of opening-night disappointments. The atmosphere in Beantown will be boiling, and perhaps that is exactly what will wake up Mike Brown's guys, because to return to the headlines in New York, they will have to produce quite a few more moments of magic this season.
