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The Knicks won't watch the Cavs get their NBA championship rings
The Cleveland Cavaliers will kick off the new NBA season on Tuesday night with a celebration of all they achieved in the last one, exulting one last time in the first NBA title in franchise history by raising a banner to the rafters of Quicken Loans Arena and receiving their gigantic 2016 championship rings from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Originally scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET, the NBA and the Cavs moved the ring ceremony up by a half-hour to make sure that every Northeast Ohio sports fan who wanted to catch the festivities without missing the start of Game 1 of the World Series could soak in every last cheer of both.
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Despite having front-row seats for the celebration, though, one group of observers say they plan to give it a miss. The Cavaliers’ opening-night opponents, the New York Knicks, would prefer not to watch LeBron James and company get their jewelry, according to Al Iannazzone of Newsday:
[New Knicks head coach] Jeff Hornacek said the schedule dictates that after warming up before Tuesday night’s opener, the Knicks go back to the locker room during the ceremony.
“They have a lot of people that come out,” Hornacek said after the morning shootaround. “We’ll be back in the locker room, trying to stretch and trying to stay loose. It’s kind of a tough thing to do when you come out here and get loose a little bit and then you go back to the locker room and have a 20-minute break where you get stiff again. We’ll have them back there doing some things and then they’ll get a little bit warm-up time.” […]
Hornacek had said he hoped watching the ceremony would motivate the Knicks. He said some could choose to watch it, but they likely would use that time to stay loose and have another pre-game meeting.
“Sometimes it helps [to motivate], sometimes they just want to ignore it,” Hornacek said. “Maybe it’s good for some of the young guys to see it. The old guys are like, ‘I don’t want to watch that.’ It’s whatever their choice. I think most of our guys prefer just to get ready and focused for the game.”
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For All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony, the choice is clear. As happy as he is for former Knicks teammates J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert, and for longtime bestie LeBron, he recently told Esquire that he didn’t much care for the league’s decision to give the champions their rings on Opening Night:
Before the season opener in Cleveland, the Cavs will be presented with their championship rings. What do you anticipate feeling while you’re watching that?
Well, my approach will be the same. Just knowing what’s at stake there — knowing that they’re getting their rings. I wish the NBA would let them get their rings the day before, you know what I’m saying? Like I don’t know who came up with that rule that you get your rings at the first game.
For Anthony, who has yet to advance past the conference finals in his 13-year NBA career and hasn’t gotten out of Round 2 in five-plus seasons as a Knick, it’s got to be at least somewhat painful to watch other players celebrate winning the sport’s ultimate prize. (Asked Tuesday what he’d be thinking during the ceremony, he told reporters, “Wishing it was me.”) And despite saying during his summertime turn for Team USA that winning three Olympic gold medals would allow him to walk away from his career happy even if he never wins an NBA championship, Anthony did tell Esquire that he still might not feel whole if that’s the way things wrap up:
Will you be satisfied if you don’t have a ring when you hang it up?
I wouldn’t be satisfied, but what can I do at that point? I’m not going to be depressed that I didn’t win if I didn’t at that time. I’m not going to be depressed or down inside. But yeah, I wouldn’t be satisfied because that’s what we play for. We play to be at the highest level. So there’s no way I would be satisfied.
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Entering the 2016-17 season, the odds seem slim that even a revamped Knicks team featuring new starters Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Courtney Lee alongside Anthony and rising star Kristaps Porzingis will mount a serious challenge to Cleveland’s expected dominance of the Eastern Conference. On opening night, though, everybody’s 0-0 and hope springs eternal — and, lest we forget, we’re just two seasons removed from Melo and the Knicks playing spoiler to LeBron and the Cavs on what the King considered to be “probably one of the biggest sporting events that’s up there ever.” Anthony and company will look to replicate that feat on Tuesday … though they’ll also hope the repeat performance ends there, because the rest of the 2014-15 campaign, which ended with the Knicks going 17-65 in the worst season in franchise history, wasn’t super fun.
What is fun: the return of Noah, the longtime Chicago Bulls center and one of Cleveland’s most vocal critics over the years, to “The Land.” From Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:
The Knicks center who once declared, “Cleveland really sucks” and “every time I look out my hotel window, it’s depressing,” was asked Tuesday if he saw any irony in being in the building for the Cavaliers’ ring ceremony.
His answer drew a few chuckles.
“I don’t think it’s ironic,” he said. “Congratulations to Cleveland. Even though it’s not a vacation spot, you guys got your championship.”
And now, the world can watch the Cavs get their rings, and the Knicks can focus on warming up for the challenge ahead. Maybe that’s for the best. Given the way Cleveland spreads the floor, bombs away from deep, and attacks off the bounce with LeBron and Kyrie Irving, maybe New York will need the extra stretching.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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