The president will be in Madison Square Garden to watch his hometown New York Knicks on Monday
Donald Trump has confirmed reports that he will attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday, when his hometown New York Knicks will take on the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden. He may even stick around for Game 4 later in the week.
“I’ve been a Knicks fan for a long time, and I’m also a Jim Dolan fan,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday, nodding to the team’s longtime conservative owner. “He has invited me, I’m going,” the president continued, adding “maybe I’ll do both” when asked about potentially attending Game 4.
The high-profile series kicked off Wednesday night, with the underdog Knicks erasing a sizable deficit in the third quarter to take Game 1 in San Antonio. Trump said on Thursday that he caught the first part of the game, but missed the middle because “I talk to generals all night long now.” He did catch the end of the game, he says, when the Jalen Brunson-led Knicks were “dominant” and “really amazing.”
“Wemby is a great player,” Trump added of the Spurs’ budding superstar. “I say how do you guard this guy? He’s seven-foot-five and he’s got a great shot, right? But they find a way to do it. They’re really great. They’re a great team. I’m happy for Jim because Jim has been fighting hard to produce such a team.”
Game 3 will be the first Finals game in Madison Square Garden since 1999, when the Knicks lost to the Spurs in five games. Trump will be only one of the celebrities in attendance. Big names like Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Tracy Morgan, Fat Joe, and, of course, Spike Lee have been court-side fixtures during the Knicks’ playoff run. If you’re a normal person who wants to watch Game 3 in person, it will cost nearly $10,000 just to get inside the building.