{"id":259535,"date":"2026-06-08T19:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259535\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T19:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:14:07","slug":"stephen-a-smith-infuriated-about-trump-attending-nba-finals-game-in-nyc-it-is-narcissistic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259535\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith infuriated about Trump attending NBA Finals game in NYC: \u2018It is narcissistic\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith<\/a> ripped President Donald Trump<\/a> for planning to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday, calling his decision to go Madison Square Garden \u201cselfish,\u201d \u201cnarcissistic\u201d and \u201cridiculous\u201d because of the traffic nightmare it will create in midtown Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Trump will become the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. On Monday\u2019s episode of First Take, Smith elaborated on his criticism on Monday\u2019s episode of First Take<\/a>, saying the decision will cause a negative ripple effect that will largely impact Knicks<\/a> fans.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cThis president has no business showing up in New York City,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI am dead serious. It is selfish, it is narcissistic and it is ridiculous that he is coming to this game. I would say the same thing if it were Obama, George W., Clinton, I don\u2019t give a damn if we went back to Reagan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a football stadium in some space in Texas where you got a whole bunch of outlays and all of this other stuff,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThis is the Garden. This is midtown Manhattan. Do you have any idea what the congestion is going to be like in New York City here? I get off my radio show at 3 o\u2019clock and I\u2019ve been instructed that I have to go straight to the Garden for an 8:30 p.m. game because that\u2019s how bad traffic is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York City canceled watch parties around Madison Square Garden. A Madison Square Garden spokesperson told NJ.com\u2019s Adam Zagoria <\/a>that the cancellation was \u201cnot about the President\u201d attending the game. Other watch parties around the city remain scheduled.<\/p>\n

MORE BY<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

CHRIS FRANKLIN<\/p>\n

NFL rookie\u2019s mom inadvertently disses 2 Hall of Fame QBs, 3 Pro Bowl receiversJun. 8, 2026, 2:33 p.m.<\/a><\/p>\n

Highly-touted international NFL game is facing a huge issueJun. 8, 2026, 11:41 a.m.<\/a><\/p>\n

Smith said Trump should have known what it was like for those fans who were going to those watch parties because Trump knows how much a championship would mean for New York City team, considering the Knicks have not won an NBA title since 1973.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they lose tonight, I\u2019m looking right at him,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI\u2019m blaming the President of the United States of America if the New York Knicks lose this tonight. It is selfish. There is no reason for any president because of the congestion and the security measures that have to be invoked in order to ensure his safety\u2026 He knows it. He just doesn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks lead the series 2-0. The game will tip off at 8:30 p.m. EDT.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on NJ.com<\/a>. Add NJ.com<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith ripped President Donald Trump for planning to attend Game 3 of the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153,10663,222,3412,37011,9,24,56,63,65,64,16160],"class_list":["post-259535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-donald-trump","tag-knicks","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-midtown-manhattan","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-stephen-a-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}