Mike Brown peered up at the Madison Square Garden crowd, sensing exactly what it wanted. So, with 10 seconds remaining in a 14-point game, the head coach rushed in a substitution so his starter could receive a well-earned standing ovation from New York Knicks fans.
It was a 50-point, 10-rebound, eight-assist performance that finished with a killer fourth quarter to ensure the victory in a moment the player seemed born to embrace.
That game was played March 5, 2008, in Brown's third season at the helm of the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers -- and 18 years before he would guide the Knicks to the NBA title in June.
That player was a 23-year-old LeBron James.
"I've dreamed about playing well in this building," James said, with a glint in his eye, after the 2008 tilt. "To get a standing ovation at the best basketball arena in the world, it's one of the best things that's ever happened to me."
You can understand why, after witnessing all this, the Knicks' front office personnel had stars in their eyes and No. 23 on their minds. (The Cavs had even obtained permission, at James' request, to wear their alternate navy blue jerseys to match the debut of his Nike LeBron V "Yankees" colorway.)
Less than a week following James' performance, Knicks team president Donnie Walsh hired Mike D'Antoni as New York's newest coach with the explicit purpose to draw James in. On James' next visit to New York, in November 2008, he called D'Antoni "an offensive mastermind," and Knicks front office staffers might've passed out for a few moments. Cleveland's front office crew, meanwhile, swallowed rather hard.
That praise aside, the Knicks were already convinced James wanted to make Madison Square Garden his next home, so much so that they threw caution to the wind. Just days prior, Walsh traded key players Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph to clear the necessary cap room to sign James -- a full 19 months before he was set to hit free agency.
That, of course, didn't happen. James, as you might recall, took his talents south.
On Tuesday night, Brown, Jalen Brunson and the rest of the Knicks will receive their championship rings and a banner will be unveiled in a moment that will add to the lore of "The World's Most Famous Arena."
It's fitting that James -- now with Tuesday's opponents, the Philadelphia 76ers -- will on hand for the festivities. Including the playoffs, James is 28-11 at MSG in his career and has averaged 28 points, seven rebounds and seven assists per game. Those are close to his career averages, but behind them sits a giant file of moments on the Garden floor.
In addition to two 50-point games, James has 12 30-plus-point games at MSG. Which is why over the years James has repeatedly said things like this, from 2015: "I wish I could play 82 games a year here. Because it's the mecca of basketball. You get a great feeling when you walk in there because there is so much history." By then, Knicks fans might have thought he was being a little patronizing.
Since draft lottery night in 2003, when New York had the ninth-best odds but huge dreams, the Knicks and their fans coveted James. An argument could be made that the Knicks would've moved mountains to get to James virtually every year from 2003 to 2025.
Which makes it ironic that James told ESPN last month that he, perhaps for the first time, actually wanted to be a Knick this year. It was driven, at least in part, by the concept of playing his home games at MSG.
"I had visions of playing in the Garden and finishing my career in the Garden," James told ESPN's Dave McMenamin at 76ers media day. "I think it's the No. 1 arena in the world, as far as for a basketball player. But after they beat San Antonio, I was like, 'Hey, I can't.' I couldn't do it."
For the first time in 25 years, the Knicks and their returning championship core could honestly say they didn't need him.
He will have to settle for another Garden memory. This will be the fifth time James has had to endure another team's banner night, but this one might feel a bit different. James already has graduated to the point where he looks at every trip to MSG as perhaps his last.
"No matter [when] it is, it's going to be like, 'S---, I'll never play again in Madison Square Garden,'" James said when he visited with the Los Angeles Lakers in February. "It's been a wide range of an importance of people to grace this floor, and I hope I have a little, small snippet of somebody that came through here."
James has been contemplating the possibility of playing his final game at MSG for several years now, making each visit a potential seminal moment. But that's one of the features of his career: It keeps going.
While Tuesday's matchup at the Garden is one of the biggest early games on the calendar, there's always the possibility of an additional meeting between the Knicks and the Sixers at MSG in the NBA Cup before another high-profile game there in February. And it should be pointed out that New York and Philadelphia have met in two of the past three postseasons; a few more springtime showdowns in the Garden would shock no one.
So, if opening night is the beginning of James' goodbye to Madison Square Garden, it could be a lengthy embrace.