{"id":1977891,"date":"2026-06-07T21:39:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1977891"},"modified":"2026-06-07T21:39:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:39:26","slug":"get-ready-new-york-the-nba-finals-with-trump-wemby-and-the-red-hot-knicks-are-finally-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1977891","title":{"rendered":"Get ready, New York. The NBA Finals \u2014 with Trump, Wemby and the red-hot Knicks \u2014 are finally back"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NEW YORK \u2014 Get ready, Manhattan, even you haven\u2019t seen anything quite like this.<\/p>\n

Cometh Monday, the sporting world descends upon Midtown for its first NBA Finals game in 27 years. It\u2019s been a while, New York, but you\u2019ve done this part before.<\/p>\n

How about, adding to it, a sitting U.S. president attending the finals for the first time? And not just any president, but Donald J. Trump, himself a bombastic New Yorker, at the invitation of New York Knicks owner James Dolan, requiring security protocols never before seen for a finals game<\/a>?<\/p>\n

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Along with that, throw in record ticket prices for the finals<\/a>. Also, the man most likely to be the next proverbial \u201cFace of the NBA,\u201d Victor Wembanyama, is playing his first road finals game, at the Garden, considered to be the world\u2019s most famous basketball arena. With his Spurs facing a 2-0 series deficit.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Knicks, the New York freaking Knicks, are just two wins away from their first championship since 1973.<\/p>\n

No, no one from 42nd Street down to the Bowery can say they\u2019ve ever seen anything quite like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to be desperate for these fans,\u201d said Knicks star center Karl-Anthony Towns, who grew up just outside of the city in New Jersey. \u201cFans have earned the right and deserve the right to see finals basketball be played here at Madison Square Garden. For this to be the first game in a long time that they have seen finals basketball, it\u2019s up to us to bring it, give \u2019em something to cheer for, give \u2019em something to get loud for and also give \u2019em something to believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The fans will have paid through the nose to get inside MSG, and they will only basically be bringing themselves and, so long as it fits in their back pockets, their wallets.<\/p>\n

The cheapest ticket prices on the secondary market for Game 3 were over $6,000 as of Sunday afternoon, according to StubHub<\/a>, and lower bowl prices were approaching $90,000.<\/p>\n

The Knicks, at the behest of the U.S. Secret Service, are enforcing a strict no-bag policy for all fans, asking them to bring the bare minimum and strongly encouraging them to show up two hours before Monday\u2019s 8:30 p.m. tip-off to go through airport-like security. The Knicks said the city permitting office also denied permits for a watch party outside Madison Square Garden, and the city will erect a security perimeter where only patrons with tickets or NBA Finals credentials can enter. The New York Police said watch parties will be held in undetermined locations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI kind of wish the ticket prices weren\u2019t as crazy as they are,\u201d Knicks forward Josh Hart said. \u201cI feel like a lot of people who have been waiting for this moment for a very long time unfortunately aren\u2019t able to get into the building, when the cheapest ticket is 7 or 8,000 dollars. So that\u2019s ridiculous. But it\u2019s just going to be rocking. But obviously I wish those were a little cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

A handful of players were asked about Trump\u2019s likely attendance, and most of them spoke around the issue. O.G. Anunoby, the only player on the Knicks roster with a championship, said, \u201cI think he will just be there watching the game. We\u2019re just going to go as usual and play our game and try to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks have won 13 straight \u2014 the second longest playoff winning streak in NBA history. They took the first two games of this series in San Antonio, first with a 14-point comeback in the second half of Game 1, and then surviving the Spurs\u2019 14-point comeback in the fourth quarter of Game 2. Teams that win the first two games of the finals have gone on to be champions 32 out of 37 times.<\/p>\n

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The last team to blow a 2-0 lead in a finals, the Phoenix Suns in 2021, had Mikal Bridges on their team. He is now enjoying an excellent series for the Knicks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember losing four straight,\u201d said Bridges, who is averaging 14.5 points through two games. \u201cThat\u2019s what I remember out of that. \u2026 It\u2019s always going to stick with (me).\u201d<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson is the Knicks\u2019 leading scorer through two finals games at 25.0 ppg. He said he is not allowing himself to look up along the city\u2019s sidewalks and see or feel the energy of the moment. Hart said if he\u2019s going out to eat for dinner, he\u2019s trying to get into a private room \u2014 just to shield himself from any distractions.<\/p>\n

The Garden was still somewhat of a circus on Sunday anyway, a practice day for both teams. Actor Ben Stiller, walking around in a ball cap, was part of the sessions. Rapper Fat Joe sat in the news conferences for the Knicks and asked questions of coach Mike Brown and Brunson, who, unlike his coach, basically ignored \u201cFat Joe\u201d by saying \u201chi, Joe,\u201d as he walked off the podium.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA great day for me today,\u201d Brown said. \u201cFor the first time I got a chance to meet Ben Stiller. \u2026 I actually gave him a handshake and a hug. I got my man Fat Joe sitting in the back. This is a great day for Mike Brown.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"A<\/p>\n
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\n A timeline of Knicks\u2019 misery and hope between 1999 and 2026 NBA Finals\n <\/div>\n
\n For the first time since 1999, the Knicks are back. But the time between finals was pockmarked by weird transactions and fan frustration.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Wembanyama, meanwhile, said the atmosphere at the Garden \u201ccould be\u201d a distraction, but \u201cisolating myself is something I\u2019ve practiced over the years. I think I\u2019m good at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is similar to something media-wise like the Olympics,\u201d added Wembanyama, who is leading the Spurs with 27.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

No team in NBA history, regardless of the round, has recovered from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. So Game 3 is, for all intents and purposes, a must-win for the Spurs. They come to the Garden believing they had opportunities to win the first two games, but are readying themselves for the weightiness of what awaits them Monday night.<\/p>\n

The biggest city in the United States, with arguably the sport\u2019s most passionate fans, is anticipating its first home finals game in several generations, with the president on hand, and the Spurs have no choice but to find a way to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s enough at stake that we\u2019ll treat it appropriately,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cI think there will obviously be a ton of excitement around the game. This arena\u2019s like no other. The added circumstances will be on top of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Get ready, Manhattan, even you haven\u2019t seen anything quite like this. Cometh Monday, the sporting world descends upon Midtown for its first NBA Finals game in 27 years. It\u2019s been a while, New York, but you\u2019ve done this part before. How about, adding to it, a sitting U.S. president attending the finals […]<\/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-1977891","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\/1977891","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=1977891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1977891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1977891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1977891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}