{"id":259943,"date":"2026-06-09T00:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259943\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T00:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:51:09","slug":"donald-trump-arrives-at-game-3-of-the-nba-finals-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259943\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump arrives at Game 3 of the NBA Finals in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump arrived at Madison Square Garden prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs on Monday night, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to attend a game<\/a> in the basketball league\u2019s championship series.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Marine One helicopter flew from his home in New Jersey and landed near Wall Street before his motorcade made its way up through Manhattan and to the arena roughly an hour before tipoff. He encountered a handful of people making rude gestures, and outside the area, one group held signs saying \u201cTrump must go.\u201d<\/p>\n

He settled into a suite shortly afterward. <\/p>\n

During the afternoon before Trump\u2019s arrival, the New York Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service set up a large perimeter surrounding Madison Square Garden. Fans lined up to get inside the arena more than four hours before tipoff, in a scene more closely resembling New Year\u2019s Eve in Times Square than the usual leadup to a basketball game.<\/p>\n

They were required to provide a ticket or pass to get past various checkpoints, along with passing through a Transportation Security Administration-style magnetometer. Secret Service personnel and police were positioned at every corner and in large numbers. Daily commuters, tourists visiting Manhattan and fans were all confounded at various times as they tried to maneuver the security.<\/p>\n

After traveling from his new home in Florida for the game, Knicks fan Greg Weldon said the main inconvenience faced so far has been the lack of information.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve asked so many cops, secret service, guys with machine guns, what to do, where should we go,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody knows.\u201d <\/p>\n

Knicks coach Mike Brown and Spurs counterpart Mitch Johnson downplayed any concept of being inconvenienced by the closures and enhanced security because of Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on, and I\u2019d much rather be a part of it than not,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

With security stepped up, a watch party outside<\/a> was canceled, and ticket-holders were not allowed to bring bags inside the Garden. Fans had gathered near the arena to watch games during this playoff run, during which the Knicks have won 13 games in a row to reach the final for the first time since 1999 and move two victories<\/a> from their first NBA title since 1973.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking forward to bringing back watch parties for Game 4,\u201d Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference Monday. \u201cBut I think New Yorkers are used to presidents coming to town, and they understand that that generally means lockdowns of areas and that\u2019s what you\u2019re going to see tonight at the Garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the latest in major sporting event Trump has attended during his time as president, and the security measures have created major hassles for fans.<\/p>\n

Thousands of fans missed the start<\/a> of last year\u2019s U.S. Open men\u2019s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner because of lengthy security lines. Even though the U.S. Tennis Association pushed back the start of the match by a half-hour, many fans still couldn\u2019t get in because added measures meant that they had to go through screening not only when they arrived at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center but again in front of the steps into Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Trump watched from a suite.<\/p>\n

Asked Sunday his thoughts on Trump attending, Knicks center Mitchell Robinson said: \u201cCool, I guess. We can still get out there and play (no matter) who\u2019s here and who\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other dignitaries are also expected to be at the game.<\/p>\n

It was already hard enough for Knicks fans to get inside Madison Square Garden because of astronomical ticket prices. The get-in price for a ticket<\/a> is higher than the average cost of monthly rent in New York, surging over $5,000. The best seats are tens of thousands of dollars. Mamdani said he bought his ticket, which he said was standing-room-only, for about $1,000 directly from Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

The difficulty of seeing the game in-person has prompted fans to crowd bars, streets and watch parties all over the city. The watch party near the Garden has become a major event all through the playoffs, but with Trump attending, that event was moved a few blocks away outside the security perimeter, at Bryant Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe improvise,\u201d said Knicks guard Jose Alvarado, who is a New York native. \u201cWe\u2019re New Yorkers. We\u2019re going to find a way to watch a game, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump arrived at Madison Square Garden prior to Game 3 of the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[24330,21133,24026,24027,153,417,1354,101098,51831,5302,34179,75,1556,99756,1557,21,4583,37011,1066,9,24,1104,56,63,65,64,87,9138,319,421,82],"class_list":["post-259943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-billie-jean-king","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-dc-wire","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-greg-weldon","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-jessica-tisch","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-manhattan","tag-mike-brown","tag-mitch-johnson","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-politics","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-u-s-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259943","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=259943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}