‘I was invited’: President Trump confirms NBA Finals plans

With a four-game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the New York Knicks have officially clinched a spot in the NBA Finals. And it sounds like United States President Donald Trump will be in attendance for one of those games.

While New York’s opponent has not yet been decided, with the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder still competing in the Western Conference Finals, Trump is already making plans to attend the NBA Finals. The first two games of the series will be hosted in either San Antonio or Oklahoma City, but Games 3 and 4 will be hosted in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, and Trump indicated that he is planning to catch one of the games.

Trump said that he was invited by “numerous people,” including New York Knicks owner James Dolan.

“I think I’ll be going to one of the games,” Trump said this week, via ESPN. “I was invited by numerous people, and [Dolan], and I think I’ll be going.”

If Trump did attend a game, he would become the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. Back in 2025, he became the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl game when he attended Super Bowl LIX in which the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs.

While Trump did not outline specific plans or reveal which game he planned to attend, he did indicate that he was actually planning to attend Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals in New York, but the Knicks were able to close out the series in four games, making that plan impossible.

“I was going to go on Wednesday,” Trump said. “But [the Knicks] closed it out very quickly. … Boy what a team, they won all their games. They have some great players.”

This marks the first time that the Knicks have made the NBA Finals since 1999, and they’ve done it in dominant fashion. The Knicks have now won 11 straight games, outscoring their opponents by 262 points over that stretch, marking the most lopsided 11-game span in NBA history, regular season or playoffs.

“It’s great to see it,” Trump said. “The Knicks have really suffered for years.”

As for regular New Yorkers hoping for tickets, the get-in price currently sits at over $3,000. However, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that he and his team are “going to look at everything we can do” to set aside some affordable tickets for everyday New Yorkers as he did for the World Cup.