Knicks fans will have one brief, unavoidable reason to root for the 76ers when the NBA season opens on October 20 at Madison Square Garden.
That’s the night New York gets its championship banner raised and its ring ceremony, with Philadelphia in the building for the opener. But the 76ers are still the 76ers, which means the crowd won’t be offering much love once the game tips off. The one exception should be Ariel Hukporti.
Hukporti is set to receive his championship ring before the game, and that figure alone makes him the only Sixer Knicks fans are likely to cheer. He spent his first two NBA seasons in New York after being taken 58th overall in the 2024 NBA Draft, then left in free agency this offseason for a one-year, $3.4 million deal with Philadelphia.
The 24-year-old never had a major role when the Knicks were healthy, working as the third center behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson. Over two seasons, he appeared in 79 regular season games and started six, including five starts in 2025-26.
His playoff work was even lighter, but not irrelevant. Hukporti played in 10 postseason games for a total of 76 minutes during New York’s championship run, with most of that time coming in garbage time as the Knicks rolled through the Eastern Conference playoffs with lopsided wins.
Still, he had one moment that stuck. In Game 5 of the NBA Finals, with the Knicks down 14 late in the third quarter, Hukporti came flying in to block Luke Kornet on an alley-oop attempt. New York rallied from there and closed out the Spurs.
Now Hukporti is on the other side, rostered with an Atlantic Division rival, just like Mitchell Robinson, who is now with the Celtics. He’ll get his applause before tipoff, then it’s back to business for the rest of the night - including LeBron James’ first regular season game with the 76ers.
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Jalen Brunson Just Set The Tone For Knicks Title Defense
Jalen Brunson is already sounding like a player who understands the next job on the calendar. After helping deliver an NBA championship, the Knicks guard talked about the need to know when celebration ends and preparation begins, saying the team has to flip the switch and get ready for what comes next. He made it clear he is not treating this as a finish line, either, with no thoughts of walking away from the game and plenty of interest in keeping the title in New York.
The bigger takeaway is how quickly the conversation around a championship can turn from champagne to accountability. Brunson said the timing of moving on from the celebration was part of the mindset shift, and for a Knicks team trying to defend what it just won, that tone matters. The title is in the books, but the harder part is keeping everyone locked in on the grind that follows, and Brunson has already started framing that message for the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks May Revisit A Familiar Answer To Their Center Problem
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Sims availability gives New York a potential short-term answer at a position that remains unsettled, but the path to getting him is not especially complicated. A deal centered on Pacme Dadiet has been floated as the most realistic framework, which would make this less about a splash and more about whether the Knicks want to sacrifice a young asset for a stopgap center who already knows the organization. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Title Defense Just Ran Into The NBAs Newest Problem
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Andre Drummond is now in the mix to help absorb those minutes, but the expectation is clear enough: he is there to steady things, not to duplicate what Robinson brought. And the same CBA pressures that shaped New Yorks offseason were part of the larger conversation around Russell Westbrooks retirement, a reminder that the leagues new rules are changing more than just payroll spreadsheets. For the Knicks, the challenge is no longer just celebrating a title, but figuring out how to defend it with less margin for error than before. [Read more 🡒]