{"id":1973121,"date":"2026-06-04T21:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1973121"},"modified":"2026-06-04T21:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:38:27","slug":"adam-silver-backs-donald-trumps-knicks-fan-credentials-says-hes-welcome-for-game-3-of-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1973121","title":{"rendered":"Adam Silver backs Donald Trump\u2019s Knicks fan credentials, says he\u2019s \u2018welcome\u2019 for Game 3 of NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN ANTONIO \u2014 NBA commissioner Adam Silver said \u201cof course\u201d the president of the United States is \u201cwelcome\u201d to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals, particularly this one.<\/p>\n

Silver, a New York City resident, vouched for Donald Trump\u2019s New York and NBA credentials on Thursday in response to questions about Trump\u2019s planned attendance at Game 3 between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs on Monday.<\/p>\n

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If he is in the crowd, Trump will be the first sitting president to attend a finals game. The last sitting president to attend any NBA game was Barack Obama in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore he ever ran for office, he was a big Knicks fan,\u201d Silver said of Trump. \u201cI\u2019ve been with the league for a long time. I was there at many Knicks games with him in the old days. He attended many of our drafts when they used to take place at Madison Square Garden, and he actually appeared in one of our \u2018I love this Game\u2019 spots when I was running NBA entertainment years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Silver took over as commissioner in 2014. Before serving as deputy to former commissioner David Stern, he was chief operating officer of NBA Entertainment in the 2000s. As Silver said, Trump made a cameo in a 2004 \u201cI love this Game\u201d spot<\/a> for the NBA. In the ad, the future president and, at the time, a reality TV star said, \u201cI love this game, and if you don\u2019t, you\u2019re fired,\u201d in a nod to the catch phrase from his show \u201cThe Apprentice.\u201d Trump\u2019s spot was filmed on the baseline at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think sports in particular is something where we can emphasize what we have in common, not what pulls us apart,\u201d Silver said. \u201cIt creates a sense of belonging. We\u2019re seeing that in New York and I think President Trump is very much a New Yorker and I\u2019m thrilled that yet another New Yorker wants to participate in the enthusiasm and the joy around this Knick team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Donald Trump is pictured sitting next to his future wife Melania Knauss during a game between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers in the 1999 NBA Eastern Conference finals at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. (Jeff Haynes \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Trump has attended several high-profile sporting events in the past, including the 2025 Super Bowl, the 2025 U.S. Open tennis tournament and the 2026 College Football Playoff championship game. The bombastic Republican also never won New York, a largely Democratic state, in any of the three presidential elections he ran in, and there are likely to be at least a mixture of boos when or if he is shown on the MSG video boards.<\/p>\n

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Silver said Trump\u2019s expected presence wouldn\u2019t take away from the magnitude of the finals on the court and said the only distraction would be the extra security at MSG for the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure there will be announcements about coming early,\u201d Silver said, \u201cbut I think fans are very understanding of that. They recognize that it adds to the bigness of the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver said the extra security \u201cmay be more of an inconvenience,\u201d but \u201cat the end of the day, I don\u2019t think New Yorkers will mind that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 NBA commissioner Adam Silver said \u201cof course\u201d the president of the United States is \u201cwelcome\u201d to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals, particularly this one. Silver, a New York City resident, vouched for Donald Trump\u2019s New York and NBA credentials on Thursday in response to questions about Trump\u2019s planned attendance at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1973121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1973121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1973121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1973121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1973121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}