The New York Knicks made a lot of history in the 2026 playoffs, including the largest NBA Finals comeback of all time, the best postseason point differential, and the most wins by double digits. Equally historic is the team’s decision to visit President Donald Trump’s White House.
The Knicks will be the first NBA champions to visit the Trump White House in either term. All other champions during Trump’s time in office have rejected the visit, deciding to put politics over patriotism.
A lack of patriotism in the NBA should come as no surprise, with just 10% of its players identifying as Republicans. A recent poll found that just 29% of Democrats are very or extremely proud to be American, down from 85% in 2001, while 90% of Republicans signaled patriotism, with that number unchanged from 25 years ago.
There are at least two public Trump supporters in the Knicks organization: Owner James Dolan and backup center Mitchell Robinson, whom the president called a “great patriot” on Truth Social. When the president announced he was going to visit Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Robinson commented, “You ain’t lying brother,” on a video suggesting the broken-handed center would play harder with Trump in attendance. Public support for the president is so rare in the NBA that the only other MAGA-aligned player we know of is Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac.
The pairing of the Knicks and Trump makes even more sense considering their similarities. The Western Conference Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder were deemed “the real finals,” and the teams playing in the Eastern Conference Finals were playing for the opportunity to get stomped by one of the Western teams. In 2016, the betting odds showed a similar outlook: The myriad of GOP candidates were all competing to lose to Hillary Clinton. At one point, the New York Times gave Clinton a 91% chance to beat Trump. The Spurs had a 99.5% chance to beat the Knicks in Game 4, when they were up by 29 in the third quarter. And while Trump has had to deal with lawfare, an abuse of the justice system, being used against him, the Knicks were clearly going up against both the Spurs and the referees in those finals — both Trump and the Knicks were held to a completely different set of rules.
Not to mention, Trump is a native New Yorker described as a “courtside regular” at Knicks games during the 1990s, even attending the 1994 NBA Finals, which they lost. He also attended numerous games in the 2000s and early 2010s. So while not everyone on the Knicks may be a fan — notably guard Josh Hart, who previously called the president a “dumba**” — the partnership between Trump and the Knicks is a match made in heaven.
THE NFL’S HELLACIOUS HYPOCRISY
Having a Trump-supporting owner for the team the president historically supported may be what broke the NBA’s glass ceiling for Trump White House visits, but when the world doesn’t come to an end over it, maybe future champions will realize they should stop alienating a large part of their fanbases over politics and come together — not in support of Trump in particular, but in unity around the president of the United States.
In an increasingly polarized country, this White House visit is a major step in the effort to put aside our differences to unite over shared values. Many Knicks fans have never seen a championship — it’s been 53 years since their last one. For many New York sports fans with the unlucky combination of Mets, Jets, Rangers, and Knicks fandom, myself included, this was our time witnessing a championship in any sport during our lifetime. I, for one, am glad that the Knicks have broken the mold and opted not to turn this once-in-a-lifetime moment into a political stunt.