Mamdani Makes It Clear: Trump at the Finals, He's Sitting Elsewhere

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to watch the Knicks make a Finals run — just not from the same courtside seat as President Trump, if it comes to that.

When Jacob caught up with Mamdani in Queens on Thursday, the mayor was enthusiastic about the possibility of the Knicks reaching the NBA Finals after an invitation from Knicks owner James Dolan led Trump to say he plans to attend a game. But when asked about potentially sharing the moment with the commander-in-chief, Mamdani kept things diplomatic and distant.“If the president went to a game, that’s his decision to make. If I go to the game, I’ll be doing so separately,”he said, making it clear there wouldn’t be any bipartisan basketball bonding happening at Madison Square Garden.

The mayor sidestepped a question about how a Trump appearance at MSG — in the heart of deeply Democratic Manhattan — would land with the crowd, saying he didn’t want to“make a fool”of himself trying to predict New York crowd reactions. Fair point: predicting how a packed Madison Square Garden would respond to anyone at that moment is a losing game.

What Mamdani did express genuine passion about was the Knicks’playoff run itself. He joked about hoping the Western Conference finalists go into“double OT”repeatedly, so whoever emerges and faces New York arrives exhausted. There’s a hint of a preference there too about which team ends up on the opposite end of the court — but that’s a detail worth catching in the video.

As for whether he’d even attend in person versus watching from home, Mamdani said he’s still weighing his options. Even though the two made nice during an Oval Office visit back in November, don’t expect to see the Mayor and the President sharing a jumbo pretzel at MSG if they both show up.