{"id":263821,"date":"2026-06-11T22:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263821\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:27:11","slug":"former-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-congratulates-new-friend-knicks-guard-jose-alvarado-after-viral-collision-in-game-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263821\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NYC Mayor Bloomberg congratulates &#8216;new friend&#8217; Knicks guard Jose Alvarado after viral collision in Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg praised his \u201cnew friend\u201d Knicks guard Jose Alvarado for the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/10\/sports\/knicks-pull-off-historic-nba-finals-comeback-to-put-them-one-win-from-championship\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">team\u2019s historic comeback<\/a> Wednesday night, playfully announcing they had a \u201csmoother\u201d encounter than their viral run-in at Game 3. <\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DZcwtg0uYmY\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-nyp-affiliate=\"true\">shared a picture<\/a> of him and Alvarado that was snapped while they chatted courtside before Game 4. <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.75195313;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39648615\" width=\"444\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Our-second-meeting-went-a-little-smoother.jpg\" alt=\"A basketball player in a blue jersey with a white headband, and an older man in a purple sweater, embracing on a basketball court.\" class=\"wp-image-39648615\"  \/>Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg congratulated his \u201cnew friend\u201d <br \/>Knicks guard Jose Alvarado on Wednesday night\u2019s win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur second meeting went a little smoother. Huge\u00a0congrats\u00a0to my new friend [Alvarado] and the [Knicks] on their historic comeback. Don\u2019t ever count NYC out. One more to go. Let\u2019s Go Knicks!\u201d Bloomberg captioned the post.<\/p>\n<p>Alvarado and Bloomberg had an uncomfortably close first encounter on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>During Game 3, Alvarado flew <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/11\/sports\/celebrity-row-lost-its-mind-over-the-knicks-game-4-comeback\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">into celebrity row<\/a> while trying to retrieve a loose ball \u2014 and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/08\/sports\/knicks-guard-jose-alvarado-plows-into-former-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-during-game-3-of-finals\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">landed right on top of Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 84-year-old looked a little shaken up, but appeared otherwise unscathed.<\/p>\n<p>Alvarado put his arms around Bloomberg and patted him on the chest after the collision, seemingly attempting to apologize before diving back into the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To make matters worse, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/08\/sports\/knicks-drop-game-3-at-raucous-msg-as-spurs-strike-back-in-nba-finals\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knicks fell to the Spurs<\/a> within the hour, shattering their <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/video\/knicks-are-2-wins-away-but-is-the-hard-part-still-aheadny-got-game\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">13-game win streak<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.92843691;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39648620\" width=\"1024\" height=\"531\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-11-at-33951-PM.jpg\" alt=\"A basketball player in a white uniform with a headband reaches into the stands to grab an older man who has fallen forward.\" class=\"wp-image-39648620\"  \/>Alvarado ran into Bloomberg during the fourth quarter on Monday. ABC<\/p>\n<p>Some fans suggested that Bloomberg was \u201cthe good luck charm\u201d whose sheer presence secured <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/11\/us-news\/knicks-win-sets-nyc-abuzz-as-thousands-celebrate-game-4-victory-flooding-streets-bars-bodegas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wednesday\u2019s come-from-behind victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMikes leadership rubbed off on Jose!!\u201d one woman commented.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCraziest full circle ever,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStill my mayor,\u201d one person concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Current <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/09\/sports\/msg-rips-party-pooper-mamdani-nypd-for-keeping-street-security-lockdown-for-knicks-game-4\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> attended Game 3 with a gaggle of Empire State lawmakers in the standing-room section. He was spotted cheering on the Knicks during Game 4 <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EdKrassen\/status\/2065019649406722423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2065019649406722423%7Ctwgr%5E019ffb127a76bf2c275e09fb06858d07d8b157cf%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hitc.com%2Fmayor-zohran-mamdani-spotted-at-bar-during-knicks-comeback-finals-win-celebrates-with-patrons%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-nyp-affiliate=\"true\">at a bar in Queens<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg praised his \u201cnew friend\u201d Knicks guard Jose Alvarado for the team\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34179,1442,12363,37011,9,1104,56,63,65,64,319],"class_list":["post-263821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-mayors","tag-michael-bloomberg","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263821","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=263821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}