The celebration was on from the moment Kemba Walker’s name was announced by the team’s public address announcer Mike Walczewski Tuesday morning at Madison Square Garden, the scoreboard lowered nearly to floor level to display highlights of his career and fellow Bronx native and Knicks fan Fat Joe seated in the front row of the introductory news conference alongside family and friends.
But as he recounted highlights of his 10-year NBA career — even mustering a shake of the head hearing it had been that long — and reminisced about his magical Big East Tournament run with UConn, there was the underlying reality.