Andre Drummond sat out Knicks banner moment before showing how he can help earn his own

This was their celebration, not his. Andre Drummond stayed back in the locker room while the Knicks raised their championship banner and collected their rings ahead of their 106-100 season-opening loss to the 76ers. “I feel like I gotta earn it,” Drummond said.“I don’t want to experience something that I wasn’t there for.” He is the lone newcomer among the 10 Knicks to see the court on Tuesday.

He is a non-champion surrounded by champions.He’s tasked with replacing a beloved fan favorite in Mitchell Robinson, who was the longest-tenured Knick before he left in free agency for the Celtics. “I want to be able to experience that [celebration] because I was a part of it,” Drummond said.

“I let those guys have their moment.” But it wasn’t long until he was having his own moment. Drummond was a rare bright spot in an otherwise ugly Knicks showing, recording 12 points, 14 rebounds (seven offensive) and four assists against his old 76ers team.He had a first-half double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

He never had any double-doubles in a half all of last year.“An-dre Drumm-ond” chants reverberated around MSG, as the fans were loving what they were seeing from their new big man. “It was pretty surreal,” Drummond said.

“Just the energy of the arena, just because of how hard I was working, how hard I was playing, just to hear it, I can’t even really explain it.I got chills.

Something you live for as a player, hearing the fans be behind you. “This arena’s electric.Just doing hard work and aggressive plays gets the crowd going, so it gets me going too.” The majority of his action came in the first half, where he played 16 minutes compared to Karl-Anthony Towns’ six.

Towns got into early foul trouble — something that became routine last year — and was forced to the bench. Those long stretches on the court aren’t the ideal workload for Drummond — and perhaps a reason his production waned in the second half.�...