Trump booed before Knicks lose to Spurs at Madison Square Garden in NBA Finals Game 3 (original) (raw)

President Donald Trump was loudly booed at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Monday night before the start of Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the home team Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.

Coincidentally, or not, the Knicks lost their first game of the finals, 115-111.

The loss also snapped the Knicks' 13-game playoff winning streak, the second longest in NBA history.

The thunderous boos began when Trump was shown on the jumbotron with Knicks owner James Dolan in Dolan's suite above the court during the national anthem.

The jeers turned to cheers when the jumbotron focused on Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who was shown standing on the court.

Asked later by a reporter what he thought of the reception he got from Knicks fans, Trump said, "I thought great. I mean, I thought it was amazing, actually. You mean when they have the camera on me?"

"I thought it was very good, yeah. It was certainly amazing," he said.

"It was mostly cheers. It was loud, and it was very enthusiastic," the president said.

Trump also said: "The game was fantastic. Well played by both teams. We all had a lot of fun. It was great to watch very talented players."

The Knicks, who have not won an NBA title since 1973, entered the game with a 2-0 lead in the series over the Spurs, having won both in San Antonio. Game 4 is scheduled for Wednesday night at the Garden.

Trump's presence at the game caused waits of two hours or more for ticket-holding fans to enter the famed arena in Midtown Manhattan after security screening.

He was the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals.

On the way to the game from lower Manhattan, up the FDR Drive, the president's motorcade passed signs that read "Nobody wants you here" and "Trump must go."

Two other signs read, "Impeach. Convict. Remove."

When the motorcade pulled up to the Garden, people standing along the street booed it, while others waved American flags.

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In the suite with Trump were his granddaughter Kai, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Trump's valet and former fellow criminal case co-defendant Walt Nauta.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was sitting courtside.

Also at the game were New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and celebrities including film director and Knicks superfan Spike Lee, actors Ben Stiller and Timothée Chalamet, and "Law & Order" co-stars Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni.

So was former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, into whose lap Knicks guard Jose Alvarado fell while scrambling for a loose ball at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

A man spins a basketball on a flag near Madison Square Garden ahead of Game 3 of the NBA Finals between New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs on June 8, 2026 in New York City.

Adam Gray | Getty Images

A native of Queens, New York, who first gained fame as a brash Manhattan real estate developer, Trump is now deeply unpopular in heavily Democratic New York City.

In the 2024 presidential election, Republican Trump received fewer than 839,000 votes in the city, compared with more than 1.9 million votes for the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, then vice president.

Last week's news that Trump planned to attend Game 3 was met with derision from some Knicks fans, who worried that his presence would throw the team off its rhythm in what had been the second-longest unbeaten playoff game streak in NBA history.

That unhappiness grew when game watch parties in the area around MSG were canceled because of Trump's presence, and the New York Police Department set up a broad security perimeter in the surrounding blocks.

"Why does Donald Trump always have to ruin a good thing?" Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said on CNN on Friday.

"The Knicks haven't been in the NBA Finals for 27 years, the city is trying to celebrate this, we've embraced this team, and this guy has to inject himself," Jeffries said.

But NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, speaking to ESPN's "Inside The NBA" before the game, said Trump is "welcome to be here."

"I think that what makes sports so special, especially when there's so much [that] divides people, is it's something that we have in common," Silver said, according to ESPN.

"And we should look for those things that we have in common and build off that," the commissioner said.

Silver visited Dolan's suite during the game and was seen speaking with Trump.

Correction: Jose Alvarado is a guard for the New York Knicks. An earlier version misspelled his name.