The Los Angeles Lakers were the winners of the inaugural Emirates NBA Cup back in 2023 with LeBron James being the first ever NBA Cup MVP. In celebration of the accomplishment, the Lakers would hang a banner in the rafters of the Crypto.com Arena.
The banner is completely different from the Lakers’ 17 NBA Championship banners and as opposed to hanging multiple banners should they win the tournament again in subsequent years, the Lakers would instead just add on to the one. Last year, the Milwaukee Bucks also hung a banner upon winning the second NBA Cup Championship, but the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup Champion New York Knicks apparently won’t be following suit.
It is being reported that the Knicks do not plan to hang a banner inside Madison Square Garden to commemorate the Cup Championship, though there will be a celebration of sorts prior to the team’s next home game. And according to NBA insider Chris Haynes, this decision could potentially lead to the Lakers taking down their own banner, via Sirius XM NBA Radio:
“I think the Lakers might remove that banner now. I think they might remove that NBA Cup banner, it just hit me. They didn’t want to do that, they didn’t wanna put it up. Now that the Knicks are holding this stance, the Lakers will be like ‘Listen, we didn’t wanna do that. We compromised. And then we got this long, white, whatever color this banner is hanging up there that we don’t want up there. You know, let’s put it down.’”
As Haynes noted, the Lakers didn’t really want to hang that Cup Championship banner, but were asked by the league to do so. The Lakers are the most prestigious franchise in the league and only celebrate NBA championships so it makes sense why they were hesitant to do so. And that also makes sense why the league wanted them to hang the banner because the Lakers acknowledging this is a real accomplishment helped to establish the Emirates NBA Cup.
The Knicks refusing to hang a banner would certainly send a message and the Lakers wouldn’t be wrong to think that if New York doesn’t need to have a banner in the rafters than they don’t either. The Lakers have extremely high standards for the accomplishments and players they celebrate and if they feel the Cup banner goes against that, it could be coming down soon.
Lakers’ Luka Doncic Named To Emirates NBA Cup All-Tournament Team
Even though the Lakers came up short in their quest to win a second Emirates NBA Cup Championship, superstar guard Luka Doncic was honored for his performance in Cup games.
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