{"id":1995987,"date":"2026-06-17T23:35:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1995987"},"modified":"2026-06-17T23:35:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:35:45","slug":"knicks-owner-james-dolan-says-team-has-accepted-white-house-invitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1995987","title":{"rendered":"Knicks owner James Dolan says team has accepted White House invitation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New York Knicks owner James Dolan said during an appearance on WFAN radio Wednesday that the Trump administration has invited the team to celebrate its 2026 NBA championship at the White House and that the franchise has accepted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just did receive an invitation from the White House, which we accepted,\u201d Dolan said. \u201cWe still have to figure out the details, et cetera.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House could not immediately be reached for comment by The Athletic.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dolan and President Donald Trump are well-acquainted, as Dolan invited Trump to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals<\/a> at Madison Square Garden and also allowed Trump to use the arena for a campaign rally before the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Strict security measures were enacted for Trump\u2019s attendance at Game 3, which was the first NBA Finals game in New York since 1999 and the only game the Knicks lost in the series, with the San Antonio Spurs collecting a 115-111 victory.<\/p>\n

Dolan was seen sitting with Trump in a luxury box protected by bulletproof glass during the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I invited the president to come down for the game,\u201d Dolan said Wednesday. \u201cHe is a friend. I\u2019ve known him for 30 years. And I\u2019m very proud to bring the team to the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dolan said they have yet to set a date for the event. However, when the Knicks do attend the White House, they will become the first NBA championship team to visit Trump during either of his terms as president.<\/p>\n

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The Golden State Warriors started the trend of not visiting Trump\u2019s White House in September 2017, when Stephen Curry said before the 2017-18 season that he would not be interested in attending a White House ceremony to honor the Warriors\u2019 2017 title.<\/p>\n

Trump then famously withdrew the invitation over social media.<\/p>\n

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Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Curry later responded to Trump\u2019s post.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy stance is the same as it was,\u201d Curry said. \u201cAnd even kind of cemented even further about how things in our country are going, especially with (Trump) representing us in a very damaging way. I don\u2019t know why he feels the need to target certain individuals rather than others. I have an idea of why, but it\u2019s kind of beneath a leader of a country to go that route. That\u2019s not what leaders do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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LeBron James, whose Cleveland Cavaliers had just lost to the Warriors in the previous season\u2019s finals, backed Curry\u2019s position with a post of his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cU bum (Curry) already said he ain\u2019t going! So therefore ain\u2019t no invite,\u201d James wrote. \u201cGoing to White House was a great honor until you showed up!\u201d<\/p>\n

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U bum @StephenCurry30<\/a> already said he ain’t going! So therefore ain’t no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!<\/p>\n

\u2014 LeBron James (@KingJames) September 23, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Three NBA championship teams \u2014 the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks, the 2022 Golden State Warriors and the 2024 Boston Celtics \u2014 visited the White House during President Joe Biden\u2019s term. The 2020 Los Angeles Lakers couldn\u2019t because of COVID-19 regulations, and the 2023 Denver Nuggets did not due to scheduling conflicts. Last year\u2019s champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, did not visit the White House this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Knicks owner James Dolan said during an appearance on WFAN radio Wednesday that the Trump administration has invited the team to celebrate its 2026 NBA championship at the White House and that the franchise has accepted. \u201cWe just did receive an invitation from the White House, which we accepted,\u201d Dolan said. \u201cWe still […]<\/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-1995987","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\/1995987","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=1995987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1995987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1995987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1995987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}