The president’s arrival added tension and chaos to an already historic run by his hometown Knicks.
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NEW YORK — There was no announcement inside Madison Square Garden when President Donald Trump arrived in a suite a few minutes before his hometown New York Knicks took on the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday night.
Then, midway through the national anthem, the screen at center court showed Trump’s face, and the crowd drowned out the song: “Booooooooo!”
The jeers were louder than the Spurs had received when they took the floor — a collective roar from fans who had shown up hours before tip-off to inch through lines, funnel through fences and give themselves over to a security protocol that resembled an airport more than a sporting event, all to accommodate the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.
Trump found his way to the suite — the only one in the arena encased in security glass — just before the 8:30 p.m. tip, standing between his granddaughter, Kai Trump, and Knicks owner James Dolan, who appeared to smirk at the boos. The jeers subsided only when the Jumbotron image switched to Knicks star Jalen Brunson.
After stealing two games in San Antonio, the Knicks, riding a 13-game playoff winning streak, returned to New York for one of the most anticipated — and expensive — NBA games ever, needing just two more wins for their first title in 53 years.
Trump’s presence disrupted the Game 3 experience for frothing Knicks fans, media members and arena staffers from well before the tip-off.
Thousands of fans have gathered for watch parties outside the arena this postseason, turning the surrounding blocks into the center of the revelry. But law enforcement closed off the area to anyone without a ticket to Monday’s game.
“This was done fully in coordination with the Secret Service because of the presidential visit,” the New York Police Department said in a statement. “We expect watch parties at Madison Square Garden to resume for Game 4.”
The team suggested ticket holders arrive at least two hours before tip-off because of the extra security. Media members were advised to arrive “as early as possible” before the game and bring only “necessary” equipment. And a new bag policy sparked concerns that model Jordyn Woods, fiancée of Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns, would be prohibited from bringing the orange clutch that she said has become the team’s “lucky bag.”
Jonathan Borowka, a 29-year-old New Yorker, bought his ticket Sunday night, when he saw the prices for nosebleeds had dipped to $5,000. He arrived four hours before game time.
“I wanted to get here ASAP,” he said. “Scope out the place.”
What he found was chaos: frustrated commuters asking officers how they were supposed to get to the subway station below the arena; anxious ticket holders confused about where to enter; bewildered delivery workers navigating a labyrinth of black fences and silver barricades to reach nearby restaurants.
Mike Seelagy, a 26-year-old from New Jersey, took the train to Manhattan early enough to arrive at around 3:20 p.m., more than five hours before the game. He had purchased his ticket for $4,000 right after the Knicks swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals. When he saw that the price of his seat had risen to $18,000, he was tempted to resell, but “you can’t put a price on experience,” he said.
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After a grabbing a slice of pizza, he made it to the arena’s front entrance on 7th Avenue, only for an officer to direct him to an entrance on 8th Avenue. But when he got to 8th Avenue, an officer there told him to go to the entrance on 7th.
“They blocked it off and told me to come here,” he said to an officer stationed at a bottleneck between the barricades and fences.
“What?” the officer said, confused.
“Make it make sense,” Seelagy said. “We literally can’t go anywhere here.”
The officer had nothing else for him, repeating what he said he’d been told. Seelagy headed back toward 7th, weaving through the dense crowd.
“I didn’t think it’d start this early,” he said.
Arena staffers were heard grumbling as they waited to be screened, and credentialed media members endured long lines and limited access, including not being allowed in team locker rooms before the game.
Trump has been a regular presence at major sporting events in ways no president before him has. During the first 18 months of his second term, he has attended three UFC events, two NFL games, the college football national championship game, the Club World Cup final, the Ryder Cup and more. He plans to spend his 80th birthday on Sunday at a UFC fight — on the White House lawn.
Crowds at UFC, NASCAR and college football events have greeted him with cheers. But they booed him at the tennis U.S. Open in his home borough of Queens, a Washington Commanders game, the Club World Cup and now the NBA Finals.
His attendance also has a history of causing logistical headaches, including at last summer’s U.S. Open men’s tennis final, which was delayed as the security process left thousands of fans stuck in line outside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
A native New Yorker, Trump has attended several Knicks games over the years, first spotted sitting courtside in the early 1990s. He attended a game in the 1994 NBA Finals and several games in the 2000s and 2010s, most recently in 2014, when he sat beside conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani also planned to attend Monday’s game. Speaking on a local radio station about Trump’s plans, Mamdani said, “We’re excited to welcome anyone and everyone who’s rooting for the Knicks in this moment.” Earlier in the playoffs, he said that “one of the few things” he and Trump agree on is that “we do want the Knicks to win the championship.”
“He’s a New Yorker,” rapper Fat Joe, a lifelong Knicks fan who campaigned for Kamala Harris in 2024 and has criticized Trump’s policies, said in an interview at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. “He’s a fan. Let him come.”
Trump has said he was invited by Dolan, who donated $300,000 to the candidate’s political action committee in the months before the 2016 election, and then contributed another $125,000 the next year toward Trump’s reelection effort. At the time, a spokesperson for Dolan called the Knicks owner “a longtime friend and supporter of President Trump.”
Trump was spotted drinking a Coke in the typically Pepsi-product-only arena, and was joined at one point by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Unrelated to the president’s attendance, presumably, was the result: a 115-111 loss and the end of the Knicks’ streak. They’ll play again Wednesday. Trump is not expected to attend.
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