{"id":693728,"date":"2026-06-09T15:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693728\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:41:11","slug":"spike-lee-takes-subtle-dig-at-trump-with-knicks-jersey-as-president-watches-game-3-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693728\/","title":{"rendered":"Spike Lee takes subtle dig at Trump with Knicks jersey as president watches Game 3 defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spike Lee took a subtle dig at Donald Trump with his outfit at Game 3 of the NBA Finals.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Oscar-winning filmmaker and lifelong fan of the New York Knicks<\/a>, 69, sat courtside Monday night while the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> defeated the Knicks 115-111. It marked the first loss for the Knicks in the NBA Finals and the first game attended by Trump, a native New Yorker <\/a>who watched the Madison Square Garden game from a box he shared with Knicks owner James Dolan.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Sitting in Trump\u2019s direct line of sight, Lee sported a custom Pope Leo XIV jersey after receiving it at the Vatican in November. The blue number 14 jersey bears the signature of the first-ever American Pope \u2014 who has already butted heads with the Trump administration<\/a> during his first year as the leader of the worldwide Catholic church.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo has been outspoken in criticizing Trump\u2019s Iran war<\/a>, along with his immigration policies. In response, Trump has accused Pope Leo of being \u201cweak on crime\u201d and said that he is \u201cendangering Catholics.\u201d <\/a>Trump\u2019s Vice President JD Vance, who is a converted Catholic, also weighed in on the feud and said in April that Leo should \u201cbe careful\u201d when discussing theology.<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the president\u2019s repeated criticism, the Pope said he has \u201cno fear of the Trump administration\u201d and said he does not want to debate Trump.<\/p>\n

\"Director<\/p>\n

Director Spike Lee wore a special New York Knicks jersey to Game 3 of the NBA Finals (AP)<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

Trump was booed when he was shown on the Jumbotron at Monday\u2019s game (Getty)<\/p>\n

Lee did not mention anything about the clash between Trump and Leo when he spoke about wearing the jersey, but told CNN that he had previously worn it during a first-round Knicks win against the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Do The Right Thing filmmaker said that he plans to wear the custom jersey again at Game 4 of the NBA Finals, which is set for Wednesday.<\/p>\n

During his conversation with CNN, Lee also called out Trump for his controversial decision to attend Game 3 and said that his presence was an unnecessary distraction.<\/p>\n

\"Pope<\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV signed Spike Lee\u2019s Knicks jersey at the Vatican in November (Vatican Media\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2018t speak for all disciples. But, I just find it strange that this had to happen now,\u201d Lee said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get there two hours early. I mean… it\u2018s taking the focus off. We haven\u2019t won [a championship] since 1973! It should be about the game tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attendance prompted a security crackdown at MSG consisting of a strict no-bag policy at the iconic venue, along with \u201cTSA-style screening procedures.\u201d Fans were warned to bring as little as possible and encouraged to arrive at least two hours before the scheduled tip-off.<\/a><\/p>\n

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To top things off, all watch parties outside the game were banned amid the president\u2019s attendance \u2014 so it came as no surprise when frustrated Knicks fans loudly booed Trump <\/a>when he was shown on the Jumbotron during Monday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spike Lee took a subtle dig at Donald Trump with his outfit at Game 3 of the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[6417,12,355,361,253096,19431,2116,57088,99,95132],"class_list":["post-693728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-donald-trump","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-pope-leo","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-spike-lee","tag-sports","tag-the-nba-finals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}