Knicks will get an up-close look at the standard they must now exceed

They are professionals.They don’t require the kind of basic motivation college coaches preach to their players.

They aren’t susceptible to the emotional manipulation that high school coaches project on their players.They are pros.

It’s their job.It’s their lives.

It’s their livelihoods. So Tom Thibodeau knows better than to hammer home that which will be impossible to miss Tuesday night, at the TD Garden.The Celtics will raise an 18th championship banner to the Garden’s already crowded rafters.

The Knicks are welcome to watch. There will be one final ode to the 2023-24 C’s, and it promises to be loud enough and long enough to extend all across New England, so it can be properly shared with an audience far beyond the 19,156 who’ll be packed tightly within the arena walls.The Celtics never did have to tame the Knicks to win that title, but it’ll be the Knicks who’ll fully experience the spoils of what the Celtics did. How will that affect the Knicks on Tuesday, as they begin their quest to achieve what the Celtics have already earned? Well, hell, you’ve seen Thibodeau’s basketball floor plans for four years now.

You know his greatest hits by heart.How do you think the Knicks will react and respond? You know how they’ll react and respond. “To me, situations like that happen all the time, whether it’s a ring ceremony, honoring a team or a player,” Thibodeau said Monday, a day before Knicks/Celtics tips off the season in Boston.

“It’s all part of the league.And the thing I want them to remember: Don’t get distracted.

For us, I want our players sticking to their routine.If you get caught up in the hoopla … what’s really important is being ready to play.

That’s the important thing.” Don’t misunderstand: what follows after the pomp and circumstance will be considerably relevant.The Knicks want what the Celtics have, and in order to take it away, they’ll have to learn how to beat them across the next seven or ...