Madison Square Garden was supposed to belong to the Knicks that night. After 27 years without a home NBA Finals game, New York finally had its moment back. Then President Donald Trump entered the picture, and the conversation shifted from basketball to barricades, security checks, and who really gets to own a night like this.
Stephen A. Smith saw the problem coming before tipoff. He did not frame it as a left-versus-right fight. He framed it as a fan issue. To him, any sitting president walking into Game 3 at MSG would bring a level of disruption that regular fans did not ask for.
Smith draws a hard line
ESPN’s loudest voice had no hesitation about where he stood. Stephen A. Smith went on record during his podcast and flatly said he did not want President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
His words were blunt and direct. “He’s coming to Game 3 of the NBA Finals, and I don’t want him there,” Smith said on his show. Smith was careful to separate his stance from any political position. He stressed that his concern had nothing to do with Trump’s policies or presidency.
His argument was simple: a presidential visit would add chaos to an already electric night in New York City and disrupt the fan experience that thousands had waited decades to enjoy.
End of a 27-year Finals drought
To understand why this moment feels so loaded, you need to grasp what the NBA Finals mean to New York right now. The Knicks have not hosted a Finals game since 1999, and the city has been starved of this moment for a generation. The franchise had not won a championship since 1973, making this run feel historic.
New York came into the series as underdogs against the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks won their 13th straight playoff game and took a 2-0 series lead before Game 3.
The energy building around Madison Square Garden was unlike anything New Yorkers had felt in a very long time. That context made the debate over Trump’s attendance even more charged.
Trump was invited to attend the Finals
Trump did not crash the event. He was invited. Knicks owner James Dolan personally extended the invitation, and Trump confirmed his plans aboard Air Force One. Trump said he had also planned to attend Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, but the Knicks swept Cleveland in four games before he could go.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver also welcomed Trump’s presence and called him “very much a New Yorker.” Trump, born and raised in New York City, has a long history with the Knicks and MSG.
He has been a regular at UFC events at the arena and attended the 2025 Super Bowl and U.S. Open during his second term as well.
Smith takes a non-partisan stance
Critics were quick to label Smith’s stance as politically motivated. He shut that argument down fast. Smith said he would have made the same request if Barack Obama had planned to attend. “If it were Barack Obama coming to the Garden, I would say, ‘Stay home,'” he stated clearly on his show.
His point was about disruption and the fan experience rather than partisanship. He argued that any sitting president, regardless of party, brings with them a level of disruption that does not belong at a sporting event of this magnitude. Smith called out anyone who tried to make it a political fight and told them to “grow up.”
Fun fact: Stephen A. Smith earned his college basketball scholarship by hitting 17 3-pointers during a single tryout session.
MSG event canceled for security reasons
Smith’s concerns about chaos turned out to be well-founded. The NYPD announced on Sunday that no watch party would be permitted outside Madison Square Garden for Game 3. The decision was made jointly by the NYPD and the U.S. Secret Service. Thousands of fans who had planned to gather outside were left without a venue.
The city scrambled to offer alternatives. A watch party at Bryant Park for up to 5,000 fans was added at the last minute. Watch parties at Brooklyn Bowl and Wollman Rink in Central Park were also arranged. However, both venues had already reached capacity by Sunday afternoon, leaving many fans disappointed just hours before the game.
Heavy security surrounds MSG
Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals game, and the security operation that followed was enormous. The NYPD established a multiblock perimeter around the arena. Anyone without a game ticket was barred from entering the secured zone surrounding MSG entirely.
Ticket holders faced a TSA-style screening process and were advised to arrive at least two hours before tip-off. A strict no-bag policy was enforced. The Secret Service published a list of prohibited items that included selfie sticks, glass containers, and various other everyday objects. The scene outside the arena reportedly resembled New Year’s Eve in Times Square more than a typical game night.
AOC criticizes the visit
Trump’s attendance drew sharp criticism beyond the sports world. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the visit had already been a vibe-killer because the city had to cancel watch parties outside MSG. She said that as a politician herself, she had attended her share of sports games and understood the difference between being a fan and being an intrusion.
The political tension around the event underscored a broader frustration among some New Yorkers. They felt that a moment meant to celebrate the city and its basketball team had been partly hijacked by the logistics and politics of a presidential visit.
Where sports and politics meet
The controversy around Game 3 raised a question that goes well beyond basketball. Should sitting presidents and other high-profile political figures attend major sporting events when their presence creates disruption for regular fans? There is no clean answer. Presidents have attended sporting events for generations, and it is a tradition with deep roots in American culture.
What is new is the scale of the security apparatus that now surrounds every presidential appearance and the way that apparatus can reshape an entire event around itself.
Tickets for Game 3 were selling for upward of $8,000, meaning the fans inside had already paid an enormous price to be there. Adding significant logistical obstacles on top of that price is what Smith and many others found hard to accept.
Little-known fact: Stephen A. Smith is a 1991 Winston-Salem State University graduate, and WSSU announced he would be inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
TL;DR
- Stephen A. Smith publicly asked President Trump not to attend NBA Finals Game 3 at MSG, saying the presidential visit would cause unnecessary chaos for fans.
- Smith said his stance was not political and that he would make the same request of any sitting president, including Barack Obama.
- Trump was personally invited by Knicks owner James Dolan and confirmed his attendance aboard Air Force One.
- The NYPD and Secret Service canceled the outdoor watch party outside MSG and established a multiblock security perimeter around the arena.
- The controversy sparked a wider debate about whether presidential attendance at major sporting events harms the fan experience more than it honors it.
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This article was made with AI assistance and human editing.
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