Donald Trump attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden on Monday night as the guest of team owner James Dolan, becoming the first sitting US president to attend an NBA Finals game. He was loudly booed when shown on the jumbotron during the national anthem. His security requirements cancelled the outdoor watch party that had drawn thousands of fans to the surrounding streets. He appeared to fall asleep during the game. The Knicks lost 115-111.
The boo was specific in its duration. Trump appeared on the video screens for a little over eight seconds while the Star-Spangled Banner was being sung, holding a salute throughout with a smile on his face. The boos were immediate and loud. A few seconds later the board cut to the Knicks players in their pre-game line. The boos turned to cheers.
A night altered before it started
For many Knicks fans, Trump’s presence had changed the character of the evening before he arrived. The Knicks entered Game 3 carrying a 2-0 series lead over the Spurs and seeking to move within one victory of their first championship since 1973. New York was hosting its first NBA Finals game since 1999. The outdoor watch party that had drawn thousands of fans to the streets around Madison Square Garden during the earlier playoff rounds had been a fixture of the city’s collective experience of this unprecedented run.
Trump’s attendance cancelled it.
NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch described a “frozen zone” encompassing several blocks around the arena – West 30th to West 35th Streets, Sixth to Eighth Avenues – with police checkpoints limiting access to ticket holders, rail passengers, credentialed personnel and those with an authorised reason to enter. A 10-foot perimeter fence surrounded the building. Fans were advised to arrive at least two hours early. A strict no-bag policy was implemented. Secret Service agents manned metal detectors at entry points. Secret Service personnel also commandeered the suites on either side of the owner’s box where Trump was watching, above center court with James Dolan, interior secretary Doug Burgum, transportation secretary Sean Duffy and Trump’s granddaughter Kai.
Joanne Cadden, 53, a Knicks fan from the Bronx who has followed the team since the early 1990s, said: “He could have picked any other day. This night is for the fans. You’re making people go away from the Garden. This wasn’t the time.” Gesturing toward the fencing and checkpoints surrounding the arena, she added: “This looks like prison.”
Rich Becker, 54, who came to Midtown without a ticket: “It changed everything. Should he be here? I don’t think he should, but he’s coming. He used to be a Knicks fan. He spent a lot of time at the Garden back in the day. But now it’s a little different. Just stay away.”
The security disruption echoed Trump’s appearance at the US Open men’s final in Queens last year, where bottlenecks produced lengthy queues outside Arthur Ashe Stadium and thousands of fans were still filing into their seats well into the second set.
The history – and the awkward present
Trump’s relationship with the Knicks is, at least historically, genuine. Long before entering politics, he was a fixture in the courtside seats during the franchise’s 1990s glory years – the Patrick Ewing era, the years of Starks and Oakley. His appearance on Monday made him the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. NBA fans skew liberal. The Knicks play in a city that gave Kamala Harris an overwhelming majority in 2024. The combination produced the boo.
Also in attendance was New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, who bought a standing-room only ticket from Madison Square Garden for approximately $1,000 and told reporters about it before the game. The two figures under the same roof represented something of a civic collision – the city’s newly elected mayor, who ran on an explicitly progressive platform, and the president his city voted comprehensively against, watching the same basketball game from different parts of the same building.
Other prominent Knicks fans in the building included Spike Lee, Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Jon Stewart and Tracy Morgan.
The president appears to fall asleep
Later in the game, footage circulating on social media appeared to show Trump falling asleep in the owner’s box.
This is not the first time such footage has attracted attention. As we reported in our Rubio Meet the Press piece, Democrat Ted Lieu played two videos of Trump appearing slumped and drowsy at Cabinet meetings to Secretary of State Rubio at a congressional hearing. Rubio’s defence was that Trump calls him at 2am. The NBA Finals footage adds to a pattern of public appearances in which the president’s alertness has become a subject of discussion.
Rubio was not present at the game to offer comment.
The Knicks lost
For Tom Meade, 76, who attended Knicks playoff games during the franchise’s championship era and brought his son to Monday’s game, the presidential security was “a nuisance, but we’re here to enjoy the game and the Knicks.”
The Knicks lost 115-111. The Spurs cut the series to 2-1. The outdoor watch party had been cancelled. The president had been booed. The security apparatus had sealed off several blocks of Midtown Manhattan. And somewhere in the owner’s box, at some point during proceedings, the first sitting US president to attend an NBA Finals game appeared to close his eyes.
The outdoor watch party is expected to return for Game 4 on Wednesday.
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