NEW YORK — At the conclusion of every regular season, provided the Knicks make the playoffs, the organization redesigns the corridor leading from the home locker room to the Madison Square Garden hardwood floors. On the wall parallel to the exit, the words “10 Weeks of Sacrifice” are printed in big, bold letters, a reminder of what it will take — and how long it will take — for the Knicks to make good on their NBA Finals mandate.And framed and hung on the door directly outside of the locker room is a life-sized contract sitting roughly eye-level with the players, ranging between six and seven feet tall.

It’s the first thing anyone from coaches and players to executives and ownership see when they walk in the room.The title reads plainly: 2025-2026 NBA Season. “Standard of a CHAMPION.” And every inch of the life-sized contract is adorned with the signatures of Knicks personnel. The first line of the contract is the most important:“My willingness to SACRIFICE at the highest level for the TEAM, on and off the floor, will represent my dedication to our collective objective.”The contract continues as follows: “I’m selflessly CONNECTED to the TEAM because we are stronger as one.

I pledge that my unending COMPETITIVE SPIRIT, or drive to win while being the best version of myself for the TEAM, will be unmatched. My unwavering BELIEF in the TEAM and our process will hold truth during our most adverse times, every play and every day.”It concludes: “I embrace our TEAM standard and fully commit to being held ACCOUNTABLE as a New York Knick.”This is the contract head coach Mike Brown asked organizational members from top to bottom to sign when he first took the job, replacing Tom Thibodeau, fresh off of the franchise’s first conference finals appearance in a quarter-century, in July.

It wasn’t on the locker room door for the 82 regular-season games the Knicks played en route to securing a 53-win season and the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed.But it’s there now, a reminder of the promise they made to put the team first and push egos to the backdrop.And it embodies why these Knicks — flaws and all — can accomplish the impossible: run the table in the East, make the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 and hoist an NBA Finals trophy for the first time since 1973.When they play the right way.Game 2 was a deviation from the contract the Knicks signed at the beginning of the year — and it’s why they lost to the Hawks, 107-106, to tie the series at one game apiece on Monday as it shifts to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4 starting on Thursday.The improvements must start with Mike Brown, whose wacky substitution pattern cost the Knicks three separate leads: two in-game and one in the series.The Knicks built an 11-point lead by the tail end of the first quarter before Brown went with a blunder of a lineup: both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns on the bench at the same time while Mitchell Robinson, Miles McBride, Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson and OG Anunoby. The Hawks’ second unit immediately erased the Knicks’ lead at the start of the second quarter, and Atlanta took a one-point lead, 36-35, within the first four minutes of the period before Brown turned back to his All-Star duo.And then it happened again.

This time at the top of the fourth quarter, when Brown inexplicably sat both Brunson and Towns simultaneously, comfortably nursing a lead that had ballooned as large as 14 points. Brown waited until the 7:56 mark in the fourth quarter to go back to his top guns. The Knicks led by nine when he made the sub.

The Hawks went on to outscore them, 20-9, through the rest of regulation.The starters, however, should have been able to pull away from a team they’d run up the score on earlier in the evening. That’s where the accountability on Brunson comes into play.The Knicks’ captain shot 10 of 26 from the field for 29 points in Game 2, but in the fourth quarter, he shot 3 of 8 from the field and was torched on the defensive end by C.J. McCollum, who flat-out called Brunson a flopper after Game 1, then hung bucket after bucket in a 32-point masterclass, many of those points coming at the expense of the All-Star Knicks guard whose ankles need IcyHot after defending the Hawks’ star guard.As Brunson dominated the ball, Towns — who shot 6 of 7 from the field in the third quarter alone — took just two shots in the fourth quarter.

Josh Hart took one shot in the final period. Anunoby played 10 fourth-quarter minutes and took one shot. And Mikal Bridges — who had eight points in the first quarter and 10 by half only to finish with 10 on the night — took three shots, missing them all, including the potential game-winner at the buzzer.Can the Knicks still win a title?

Can they still win a series against a physical Atlanta Hawks team that stole home-court advantage from the MSG floors?Maybe the better question is can this team adhere to the contract it signed as a group to start the season? Can this group effectively sacrifice for the greater go