President Donald Trump was booed at Madison Square Garden as he attended his hometown New York Knicks’ NBA Finals matchup with the San Antonio Spurs on Monday, June 8.
Trump was watching the game from a private box, alongside Kai Trump, the eldest daughter of his son, Donald Trump Jr. The boos first came as Avery Wilson performed “The Star Spangled Banner.”
It was the Knicks’ first home game in the team’s first Finals appearance since 1999. The Knicks lost, 115-111, meaning the series will return to San Antonio for Game 5.
The president’s attendance, at the invitation of Knicks owner and longtime friend James Dolan, required airport-like security at the New York City arena and caused the NYPD to shut down 10-square blocks around the Garden, long dubbed the “Mecca of Basketball,” in Midtown Manhattan.
The home crowd, many of whom paid thousands of dollars to attend, gave a cold welcome to the president, who has not attended a Knicks game in years.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, was also in attendance but in a different part of the stadium. He told the press earlier on Monday that he had bought a standing room-only ticket for about $1,000.
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The Knicks haven’t won an NBA Finals since 1973, won the first two games of this year’s series in San Antonio after not having lost a game in the playoffs since the first round. Games 3 and 4 were scheduled this week for Monday and Wednesday, June 10.
“I think the Knicks have an amazing team, the way they played,” Trump, 79, told reporters aboard Air Force One last week following the series’ second game. “It started off slow and it just got stronger and stronger.”
The president, who has attended football games, golf tournaments and professional fights since returning to the White House, praised Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns as “fantastic” and said the Spurs’ 7’4 French phenom Victor Wembanyama “looks like he’s going to be a great player.”
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Because of the heightened security around the president’s attendance, the NYPD and Secret Service barred fans from gathering outside the arena during the game as they have with fervor during the Knicks playoff run.
Mamdani announced on Monday that a free watch party would welcome Knicks fans at Manhattan’s Bryant Park. Madison Square Garden organized two other watch parties in Brooklyn and at Central Park’s Wollman Rink, which Trump’s company once operated.
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NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Monday that the city expects crowds to be welcome outside Madison Square Garden for Game 4.
“As we know, what comes with a presidential visit and Secret Service protocols necessitate a different set of preparation than we would otherwise be taking for the Finals,” Mamdani, 34, said at a different press conference on Monday.
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At his Monday morning event centered on the imminent FIFA World Cup, which is set to begin later this week, Mamdani denounced a threat by Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, earlier in the day to deploy “more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen” to New York City.
Mamdani, who has met with the president at the White House multiple times since he took office in January, said he has no plans to meet with Trump while he’s in town for the game.
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Long before he was in politics, Trump was a New York celebrity known to appear at the Garden with now-first lady Melania Trump and other celebrities, including with John F. Kennedy Jr. once in 1999, months before his fatal plane crash.
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Trump has not attended an NBA game as president, but has frequented college football and NFL games, golf tournaments, and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events â including one at the Garden in November 2024 shortly after winning the election.
When he attended a 2019 UFC fight at the Garden in November 2019, he was also booed.
The Garden was the site of an October 2024 Trump rally during that campaign that drew condemnation for comments made by speakers, including comedian Tony Hinchliffe’s racist remarks about Puerto Rico and Latinos.
