The Knicks raised a banner to the MSG rafters. Then LeBron James and the 76ers brought them back to earth

By Dana O’Neil, CNN

New York City (CNN) — The rafters themselves are nothing special, merely a useful space to house lighting and air conditioning. They are dinged up and dingy, fortunate to constantly bask in a golden hue that covers up their imperfections.

But to get raised up into them, to hang around the edges like a beautiful curtain, is to achieve an honor reserved for only the luckiest of lucky.

Madison Square Garden serves as a lot of things. It is a concert hall and a hockey rink. Bull riders take over its confines once a year. So do monster trucks. And on the rarest of occasions, for very special brides, people celebrate their weddings here.

Above all else, though, it bills itself as a basketball court, the epicenter of a basketball city whose playgrounds have birthed legends, some whose skills went worldwide and others whose lore lived only in their neighborhood parks.

On Tuesday night, the Garden rafters welcomed the only banner that matters. Fittingly, it took its time to arrive at its new home. Attached to two pulleys, it meandered its way from the ground to just above the center-court scoreboard, casually and methodically rising above the court floor before finally parking itself to the left of the M in Madison Square Garden.

A piece of fabric that needed 53 years to stitch together, after all, shouldn’t be rushed through its moment of glory. The last time Knicks fans gathered here, they stood around in stupefied delirium, having witnessed their team come back from 29 down to win Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.

This was just delirium. Along the midtown streets, fans showed out in their jerseys and championship gear, some simple and plenty bedazzled. A marketing genius drove a bus with a glass side around the block of the Garden, declaring that fans should snap a picture of the trophy housed inside (the bus sported Abu Dhabi Tourism logos, so probably not), while folks headed to the turnstiles, unbothered by what Forbes said was the highest get-in price for an NBA opener in league history.

With the usual suspects – Mariska Hargitay and Spike Lee – taking their courtside seats along with Roger Goodell and Jon Bon Jovi, the Garden faithful filled the place before the 6:30 p.m. ceremony. They paid proper homage to the old stars there to welcome the new ones to their championship club – Walt Frazier, maestro of the 1973 championship, handed out the rings – but saved their bedlam for their more recent heroes.

OG Anunoby, he of the “hand of God” putback in Game 4, earned a raucous ovation, as did Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.

But no one brought the house down quite like Jalen Brunson. The Knicks captain leaned into his new comedic chops, honed on a stint hosting “Saturday Night Live,” and thanked the crowd for sticking around for Game 4. He then hit the right notes, saying that as much as he loved the good will he felt this summer, he’d like to “replicate that again this year.”

“Let’s raise a championship,” he finished as the banner headed upwards.

Of course, nowhere is glory more fleeting than in sports. Banners may last forever, but success has a very short shelf life. Before the glitter from the Knicks’ meat-hook sized rings stopped shimmering, the NBA nudged everyone along to the new season.

In a purposeful confluence of brilliant scheduling, marketing and the business of basketball, the league arranged it so that the kings of New York would have their on-court coronation on the same night they welcomed the king to their court.

LeBron James, 41 and in search of a team that could help him write the final championship chapter of his career, debuted his fourth NBA jersey, suiting up for the 76ers.

Booed upon introduction and welcomed with chants of “We didn’t want you” - referencing James’ admitting he considered New York before they won the title - James and the Philadelphia 76ers left with the final word in a 106-100 victory.

“It’s encouraging,” 76ers head coach Nick Nurse said “I think the intent of what everybody has been doing is right. I’m really happy to come here and get a win. They’re a hell of a team, and when I wake up tomorrow, I’ll probably forget about it.”

New York might not, at least not so quickly. As the Sixers absorbed punch after punch and refused to fold, reality returned with at least a whimper, if not a thud. New York fans quickly shed their joy, exchanging it for exasperation. They screeched their aggravation at officials and implored, more than cajoled, their team with “C’mon New York.”

It is ridiculous to suggest that the first game in an 82-game slog could be a must-win, but in Philly, where dire usually comes with a extra heap of desperate, it was pretty close.

Reeling from the end of their quarterback’s season and the unofficial end to the Eagles’ hopes, the city is about at its limit. The hottest topics waffle between Nick Sirianni’s job security and the treatment of Jalen Hurts’ blood clots, none exactly harbingers of good news. The Flyers were done before they started and the Phillies long gone.

Into the abyss walks the most unsuspecting of would-be heroes. No one in the city has turned to the Sixers for salvation for years, accustomed to a process that never proceeded. Philly hasn’t so much tasted the Eastern Conference finals since 2001, marching coaches through a revolving door as it refused to fix what truly ailed the franchise.

But this offseason, the owners finally made moves, bringing in Bob Myers, the architect of Golden State’s brilliance, and Mike Gansey. Together, the two reworked Philly’s fortunes, pulling off a move for Jaylen Brown from the Celtics, and then using that – along with the moxie of Tyrese Maxey – to lure James to, of all places, Philly.

It crafted a fever dream for Philly, a team built not just to take baby steps toward success, but to sprint there.

The first effort was hardly a work of art. The Sixers’ starting five hit just 29 of their 71 field goals, looking regularly like exactly what they are – a team still learning how to connect all of their disparate parts.

But no one came here expecting to solve all the riddles at once.

“Obviously this is a marathon,” James said. “But on day one, day six, seven, whatever, the experience that we have we want it to translate to wins and more of a culture – a championship culture.”

Perhaps one that ends with a banner celebration all their own.

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