Tuesday\u2019s championship ceremony<\/a> at Madison Square Garden. According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, the boxes were empty.<\/p>\nThe assistants learned earlier that day that they wouldn\u2019t get their rings Tuesday, Vardon reported, and they\u2019ve been told the rings will come later.<\/p>\n
Some MSG employees got an offer of their own. In September, per The Athletic, MSG staffers received an email that opened, \u201cCongratulations, your Employee Championship Ring is here.\u201d It said the ring was \u201con the house\u201d and offered two designs, \u201cChampionship Gold\u201d and \u201cGarden Classic.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a phishing test. Employees who clicked were sent to a mandatory cybersecurity class, according to the report. Many longtime MSG employees won\u2019t get rings at all, Vardon reported.<\/p>\n
The Athletic also noted that the Thunder\u2019s assistants didn\u2019t get their rings on opening night last year either.<\/p>\n
Ring night, record audience<\/p>\n
The ceremony drew a crowd at home, too. NBC Sports said 76ers-Knicks averaged 7.7 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, the most-watched prime-time game in NBA opening-night history, and peaked at 9.1 million at 9:45 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n
The Knicks lost 106-100. The ratings held up anyway.<\/p>\n
Robinson is off the injury report<\/p>\n
Mitchell Robinson twisted his ankle in Boston\u2019s opener Tuesday, a 121-113 loss at Detroit. He isn\u2019t on the NBA\u2019s injury report for Friday\u2019s game against the Knicks. The Celtics list only Devin Carter, out with an illness. The Knicks list only their three two-way players, Jaden Akins, Kevin McCullar Jr. and Tyler Nickel, all questionable on G League assignments.<\/p>\n
Robinson had four points and three rebounds in 18 minutes against the Pistons. His new coach expects more.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very important piece to what we do,\u201d Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Thursday. \u201cThe standard is a little bit higher and the expectation is a little bit higher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knicks among teams eyeing Knecht<\/p>\n
The Knicks are among the teams interested in Dalton Knecht, according to SNY\u2019s Ian Begley. The former Lakers first-round pick was waived Monday and is still eligible for a two-way contract.<\/p>\n
The Knicks\u2019 three two-way spots are already full, with McCullar, Nickel and Akins.<\/p>\n
Somebody would have to make room.<\/p>\n
Knickson Fyve<\/p>\n
Yvonne Gonzalez-Bradford was seven months pregnant when the Knicks won the title. She and her husband, Vance Bradford, named their son Knickson Fyve Bradford, ABC7 New York and TODAY reported. The middle name comes from the city\u2019s chant: \u201cKnicks in five!\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be hearing it for a while.<\/p>\n
Konchar heads to Greece<\/p>\n
John Konchar, waived by the Knicks in training camp, signed a two-year deal with Olympiacos, the Greek club announced. The Knicks and Konchar had mutually agreed to part ways in September while he dealt with a personal matter.<\/p>\n
Around the league: Thunder win without SGA\u2019s best, ex-Nets meet in Houston<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City beat Denver, 96-84, Thursday in its home opener and is 2-0. Jalen Williams scored 21, and Chet Holmgren had 12 points and 17 rebounds. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 17 on 6-of-19 shooting, ending a streak of 141 straight games with 20 or more points.<\/p>\n
Two former Nets met in Houston on Wednesday. Kyrie Irving played his first regular-season game since tearing his ACL on March 3, 2025, and scored 15 on 6-of-9 shooting in Dallas\u2019 128-110 loss to Kevin Durant\u2019s Rockets, who outscored the Mavericks 38-12 in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put on their boxing gloves and they beat us up pretty good in that second quarter,\u201d Irving said.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn once paid for both of them to be on the same side.<\/p>\n
The Knicks visit the Celtics at TD Garden on Friday at 7 p.m. on Prime Video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 This is Catching Strays, the Daily News\u2019 regular Knicks rundown for the quotes, stats and storylines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,101682,7,4981,3237,304,6,678,207,3817,101683],"class_list":["post-865958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-76ers","tag-76ers","tag-banner-night","tag-basketball","tag-championship-rings","tag-james-dolan","tag-knicks","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-philadelphia76ers","tag-phishing-test"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117491710265567944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}