But its back to the daily grind.
The New York Knicks basketball team has won its first kind of National Basketball Association championship since 1973. The Knicks beat San Antonio to win the NBA Cup or originally called the NBA Cup but now is named after a Middle East airline, in a made-up tournament intended to make a select number of regular season games more interesting than a run of the mill regular season game. There probably won’t be a ticker tape parade in the next few days down the “Canyon of Heroes” in lower Manhattan. But there will be Knicks championship T-shirts and caps to buy and a banner probably will be raised to the Madison Square Garden rafters. All of this doesn’t mean the Knicks basketball team will win a championship next June.
Meanwhile in Las Vegas, there is a chance that the city has hosted its last NBA Cup final game for a while. The league owners may look elsewhere to hold its in season tournament that is designed to make the owners and players some money and draw attention to a product that is somewhat ignored until a Christmas Day coming out party with marquee players on display on TV. Las Vegas is not cutting it anymore for NBA owners, at least for the NBA Cup. The owners have seen empty seats at some games and a lack of enthusiasm in the crowds. It should be pointed out that the NBA Cup is a made-up tournament that means very little in the overall scheme of things.
Commissioner Adam Silver’s remarks did not sound promising when it came to the NBA Cup final game returning to Las Vegas. “Maybe go to some unique locations for the final game,” he said. “(Amazon) suggested, for example, some storied college arenas. We’re looking for other ways we could do this.”
The NBA has been doing business in Las Vegas for years but has not taken the final step and put a franchise in the city. There is the NBA Summer League, there is an annual pre-season game and there have been some regular season games in the city going back decades. The NBA should know the Las Vegas market thoroughly. But NBA owners keep studying the city and the market to see if it is feasible to put a franchise there.
“I don’t have any doubt that Las Vegas, despite all of the other major league teams that are here now, the other entertainment properties, that this city could support an NBA team,” Silver said. “I think now we’re in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them, and then sometime in 2026 we’ll make a determination.”
The NBA has lost ground in terms of available money to buy suites and premier seats for its product. The National Hockey League and the National Football League have franchises in the market. Major League Baseball’s Athletics owner John Fisher is committed to bring his business to town although it is unclear if he has all the money he needs to build a Las Vegas MLB ballpark by 2028. There is a Formula One Grand Prix race in town.
However, Las Vegas has attracted less tourists in 2025 thanks to tariffs and regulations that are making it tougher for foreign tourists to enter America. Canadians have turned their backs on going to Las Vegas and that is not a good sign for the market as Las Vegas has a tourism driven economy and Canadians are the largest group of international tourists that go to the city.
But the Knicks won a championship. Now it’s back to the day-to-day regular season campaign until April when 20 of the league’s 30 teams begin the real season. The playoffs.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
