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Knicks owner James Dolan says team will go to White House to celebrate championship
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Jun 17, 2026
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By
Giulia Heyward
Published Jun 17, 2026
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The New York Knicks will head to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump — or at least some of them will.
The championship basketball team’s owner James Dolan said he’d accepted an invitation from the White House to celebrate the Knicks’ historic win at an unspecified date in the future.
Trump is a New York City native and a Knicks fan. He and Dolan are political allies and are both scions of wealthy New York families. The two sat together at MSG Wednesday for the Knicks’ only loss of the series.
“We just received an invitation from the White House, which we accepted,” Dolan said on WFAN’s The Carton Show which aired Wednesday . “We still have to figure out the details, etcetera.”
But some Knicks players may not be the biggest Trump fans. The president was loudly booed at MSG when he attended Game 3. Knicks Guard Josh Hart tweeted in 2020 that he was glad to see the end of the president’s first term in office.
Golden State Warrior Steph Curry famously declined Trump’s invitation in 2017 when the team won the championship and the president withdrew his invitation.
The White House announcement comes on the heels of the Knicks clutching their first NBA championship in more than five decades. The Knicks 4-1 win against the San Antonio Spurs during this year’s finals sparked a fervor across New York City, culminating in thousands of revelers taking to the streets of Midtown. Amid the joy, though, hundreds were arrested, vehicles were burnt, and police reported a series of shootings related to Knicks celebrations.
The NYPD said it is preparing to deploy heavily armed officers and emergency response teams as the Knicks’ ticker-tape parade on Thursday is expected to draw millions to Manhattan.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Gothamist.
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Giulia Heyward
Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.
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