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Obviously The Knicks Should Not Visit the White House. Why Is This Even a Discussion?

The Knicks shouldn’t let their legacy include genuflecting to Donald Trump, one of the most hated figures in the very city printed on their jersey. New Yorkers deserve better.

New York Knicks fans cheer in the second half of Game Six of the Eastern Conference Second Round NBA Playoffs against the Boston Celtics hosted by the Knicks outside of Madison Square Garden on May 16, 2025, in New York City.

In my lifetime, no sports team has represented the city of New York quite like the 2025–26 NBA champion New York Knicks. Even with a new season about to begin, the city is still buzzing from the euphoria of last June, when the squad secured its first title in 51 years. People still talk excitedly about the performances of Finals MVP Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, and the rest of this team of newly minted New York icons.

Now the Knicks are now faced with a choice—and how they decide to act will forever be a part of their legacy. Will they visit Trump’s White House?

Doing so, at the behest of James Dolan, the team’s right-wing, nepo-billionaire owner, would make them the first NBA or WNBA champion to visit Trump while in office.

Knicks Coach Mike Brown said that the team needs to come together to decide whether they should go. But this shouldn’t even require a discussion. First, doing so would mean crossing a picket line established in 2017 by NBA and WNBA players who, at the time, made it clear that a president who traffics in racism and attacks politically outspoken players should not be graced with their presence. A decade later, with far fewer outspoken players, the Knicks’ crossing that line would symbolize the death of an era where players didn’t check their politics at the door and being a brand wasn’t........

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