News & Blogs
NBA Finals Game Thread: Knicks at Spurs, Game 2, June 5, 2026 – Posting & Toasting
Towns, Knicks put Spurs on ropes, lead 2-0 in NBA Finals – ESPN
Timothee Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Knicks Fans Celebrate NBA Finals Game 2 Win in Trending Videos – BleacherReport
2026 NBA Finals: Biggest takeaways from Knicks-Spurs Game 2 – ESPN
Updated NBA Finals Ticket Prices for Games 3, 4 at MSG After Knicks Take 2-0 Series Lead vs. Spurs – BleacherReport
Jalen Brunson explains why Knicks ‘can’t be comfortable’ returning to MSG with 2-0 NBA Finals lead – SNY
Knicks 105, Spurs 104: Scenes from the endless magic carpet ride – Posting & Toasting
Mikal Bridges steps up, Mitchell Robinson locks down Victor Wembanyama as NBA Finals momentum swings Knicks’ way – SNY
Knicks Beat Refs And Spurs | Knicks Chip Loading – Knick of Time
Knicks vs Spurs Game 2 Debrief: Key Takeaways & Soundbites w/ Justin Morrelli – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks at Spurs (NBA Finals, Game 2) | Opening Monologue | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
The Wemby Adjustment the Knicks Still Have to Solve – Hot Hand Theory
YT News
131 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.06.07)”
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7337488/2026/06/07/karl-anthony-towns-giannis-antetokounmpo-jalen-brunson-knicks-65-game-rule-nba-finals/
Much of this Sam Amick piece about KAT/Giannis is just speculation, but this passage where Brown talks about the evolution of his relationship with KAT is very good:
Yes. Go full Don Draper in the elevator with Michael Ginsberg: “I don’t think about you at all.”
Dolan’s absolutely loving the chaos the Trump visit is causing. The facial recognition software will be even more efficient and effective with the fans’ procession through the security gates slowed down dramatically, and his creepy database of faces will be significantly enhanced. Don’t be shocked if some of these “special” security procedures become permanent.
It’s not political to complain about this because it’s the office of the president and the Secret Service doing this — and of course the Knicks’ owner. I was thinking of actually going tomorrow, but now no way. Imagine paying those kind of prices and then wind up having to wait in an airport security line and sit around for two-plus hours. Yeah, right.
The enshittification of everything continues apace.
I kinda like the cartoon intro. I’ve even been whistling it in my spare time. Kinda surprised some dj hasn’t remixed into a new Knicks anthem yet.
have to figure he’ll be sitting in a suite?
I can’t imagine the security risk of him sitting courtside
even trumpers have to think this is just the most selfish thing someone could possibly do — the best basketball story in decades and he has to go stick himself in the middle of it.
the idea of the area around MSG being quiet and cordoned off is just horrible.
There’s a part of Dolan, maybe even a big part, that detests the crowds of regular, younger people gathering near “his building” to celebrate “his team” and we can rest assured he’s quite happy indeed with “his building” being cordoned off from the teeming masses.
There was no chance, zero, that this awesome sporting moment was going to pass normally, unaccompanied by something or other Dolan.
Word is that Trump’s going to Game 4, too. Shocking.
If he gets the reception from the crowd I expect him to get, I cannot imagine him going back for Game 4. He is driven by spite, but he is also an insecure narcissist who can’t stand being around people who he thinks are being mean to him.
I think 10k for the worst seats in the house is obscene, let alone 100k for the better ones. Culturally this is fucked up, and having an asshole bigger even than our local one here dominate the event makes it even fuckeduper (I know, I know it’s not a word).
Good to have this extra day off before game 3 to vent this. Hopefully tomorrow we’d be able to concentrate on the game. I sure hope the players do.
Wide swaths of people in the building won’t *really* be able to afford the tickets, under any serious definition of the term.
America doesn’t run on Dunkin’, it runs on easy consumer debt.
Massively.
Maybe it’s because i’m far away, well it most definitely is, but i think we should ignore him as much as we should ignore the troll song the Spurs dedicated to us (although Hubert’s idea of taking advantage of the song subtly making fun of them is a good one too). Just keep silent when the guy is on the screen and cheer loud for our team, because the team is people will be there for. I think ignoring him is a lot more powerful than cursing him, he’s used to it and he seems to me like those kind of persons that think “talk about me, good or bad, but talk about me”. How about ignoring him completely?
“How about ignoring him completely?”
Identifiable, individualized hecklers will be removed from the building by MSG security. Crowds of people who just boo are probably safe. If I were them, I wouldn’t risk it.
Wouldn’t be shocked if there was actual applause from some parts of the building. Will be interesting to see if Dolan has him shown on the big-ass Garden scoreboard. Probably. He’s a Trumpist. Most likely, he actually did invite Trump, as Trump claims.
(pulling my inner Doogie)
…because the team is *WHY* people will be there for. 🧡💙
Not really sure what hat the Brown quote about KAT is saying but I am really happy how he has made a quantum leap as a player, basically in the last two months.
It’s remarkable
At this point, we would be considered to be giving Trump exactly the attention he craves here. Although I agree with everything being posted about the situation, my vote would be to stop giving *that* troll any attention, and I’m counting on our players to do the same.
(Also, for me personally, it’s on the verge of killing my immaculate vibes about this series.)
I’m looking for Brunson to have a super-sized game tomorrow. The way he was beat up in game 2 reminds me of the series against Philly in 2024 when starting with Game 3 he figured them out. Just when his hero ball starts tipping into red flag territory he always reminds us that he is an actual hero.
And Kat is playing with capital G – Grace. His composure after those 2 bullshit calls on Friday shocked me as much as his beyond stellar play has.
These guys can smell it, feel it, taste it, and they will be in the Garden! To a man this is their entire life’s dream for the taking. To a fan, this is our singular culture’s reborn Eden, at long last, shaking and baking .
In the words of Leonard Cohen – “We asked for signs, and signs were sent.”
Just from a pure statistical perspective, a crowd that can afford 10-100k tickets for a game will obviously be much less unfriendly to him than a regular crowd. It doesn’t matter that it’s NYC.
The worst part for me is that there is a high chance that arena is not full by tip off. I remember the mess when he attended the US open last year. This will be worse.
Dolan was always a clear and present danger to do that. The fact that after 20+ years of incompetence and worse, he’s managed to somehow bumblefuck his way into a fantastic basketball team doesn’t change the man within.
Have to compartmentalize.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7337156/2026/06/07/jalen-brunson-knicks-nba-finals-pressure/?source=emp_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.oVA.tPkX.qgZex_ovGQCE
Great Edwards piece about his struggles with anxiety and what he’s learned from watching Brunson overcome his own fears.
That was a great piece indeed, Alan.
You guys should see a doctor about your TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome!)
The only thing that will Make America Greater than a Knicks Chip will be doing it in front of Daddy Trump, the one man Brave enough to stand up to foreign Bad Guys and you Commie Libtards. Thank You, Mr. President!
– Reub
As much as I loathe the guy, I’m trying to remain magnanimous about the whole thing.
If this happened during the Obama presidency and he was coming, No one would think twice about it. He loved basketball, Knicks in the finals is a big deal, etc. In fact I’m pretty sure Obama went to an ncaa finals game and presidents going to sporting events is not some new precedent. Trump may not like basketball or the Knicks per say but he is a New Yorker and this is a big deal, us being in the finals. It’s just that he’s so unpopular and makes everything about him that makes it so weird and sketchy.
Truly not everything has to be political. Again I loathe the guy and what he’s done to our country and his side makes so much stuff political for no reason, but maybe this one time we can just grin and bear it. I almost hope he isn’t booed. Just let him be there and don’t give him any more attention than he deserves. If he’s booed it’s gonna become a whole thing in the right wing media sphere.
Knicks have cancelled all watch parties outside MSG.
Way to kill the vibes, you idiots.
FWIW I find it hard to blame Trump for this. He was invited by the owner, so it’s all Dolan’s fault.
If you get invited to the best party on Earth, you’re gonna go.
“If you get invited to the best party on Earth, you’re gonna go.”
Jeffrey Epstien would concur…
That said, I’m brainstorming what’s the knicksiest + trumpiest thing that can happen, and I’ve come up with the following plausible scenario:
the Knicks are up 20 in the 2nd half, cruising to a victory, and an assassination attempt on Trump takes place. The garden is evacuated. The game is canceled and has to be replayed.
Side note: I don’t want Trump to be assassinated, but… can you imagine if the Knicks won the championship and ended his presidency?
I say Trump is quite lucky Brian told the universe he’s happy enough.
Sucks they cancelled watch parties. We have to keep our vibes going. Keep it going NY somehow
lol, reub just outed himself.
I recall seeing Trump attend multiple Knick games, sitting in front row baseline seats with his then business associate, Howard Lorber, prior to becoming POTUS. Whether he is a fan or not is open for debate. Agree with Frank that he will be sitting in a suite, but will still be a massive imposition on those attending. For those believing in Ju Ju, Dolan’s invitation is not a good thing, though at least his orange hue matches with the team colors.
President Obama attended the Syracuse-Marquette Elite Eight game on Saturday, March 30, 2013 in DC. The arena there is situated in the city, right on a subway line/station, just as MSG is and geographically and situationally poses every bit the “security concerns” that MSG poses.
The writeup of the game in the Sunday Times sports section didn’t even mention the president’s attendance, because it’s really not that big a deal if a president goes to a big sporting event and we used to be able to carry that kind of thing off pretty much as easy as breathing.
There are obviously baseline Secret Service security requirements for a president and they obviously aren’t nothing. No question. Rest assured, Dolan is going far beyond that baseline. And happily so.
To be clear, I don’t think the Knicks should do that. I agree with Alan and Brian.
I just think this has potential to be a summer anthem in NYC if the right dj gets his hands on that. It’s a catchy tune!
I’ve been to an event where he showed up and waddled in. The lines are bad and it’ll be a pain for sure. But it wont be as bad everyone is saying. It’ll be airport style, but say what you will, they’re pros at doing the checks. Not the run of the mill goon squad they usually have running security there.
But, I am worried he’ll mush us and we lose the series.
It is sort of not unexpected for the team that wins the first two games to lose game 3, even if that game 3 is at home. Last year it happened to us against the Celtics, and to the Pacers against us.
But I am expecting us to win this one, not just because I’m going, but because this team has a level of focus that is pretty rare, and is going up against a team that is having trouble focusing, especially at the end of games. We also have a team of veterans with a lot of personal pride in their professionalism as players. Josh Hart knows he massively underperformed in Game 2 and is 1-9 thus far in the series. Brunson knows that he is putting up a .375 eFG% on 39% usage. It would be one thing if guys went nuclear and were due for a bad night, or if the Spurs couldn’t hit the side of a barn on wide-open looks.
The Knicks focus on defense is a constant. It’s not an accident that the Spurs are having trouble scoring. More importantly, they are heavily dependent on Wemby’s dominance and the spacing he creates when needing to be doubled. We present one of the best defensive responses to Wemby. We have 3 players who can credibly guard him 1-on-1. Each game, those guys are getting better at it because they are getting more reps. Mitch didn’t foul on those last two contests, where in game 1 he might have. KAT has avoided crippling foul trouble, and still can get better at it.
Sure, the Spurs can get lucky. Maybe they again get a lopsided whistle, or all of Fox, Castle, Vassell, Keldon, Harper, and Champagnie get hot at the same time, while all the Knicks have an off night. I just don’t see this Knicks team letting that happen. They are on a mission, just like the 2024 Celtics were on a mission after a bitter loss to the Heat the year before.
We have waited too long to be here. Brunson and KAT not going to let this bother us.
I was also thinking of our game 3 lost to Boston last year. But it’s not a worrying data point for me, either, because I don’t see many parallels. We’re so much better than we were last year, and these Spurs aren’t nearly as good as those Celtics.
This is men against boys. They shoot poorly to begin with. They’ll likely be a little worse in the 2nd half of a close game at MSG.
The one thing I don’t want is to come out guns blazing and establish a 20 pt lead in the 1Q. I don’t know why but that always worries me. I feel like that sort of thing tires a team out. I want to see a well paced game where we pull away in the 2H.
the horror…the horror…
jeez E, I hope you ain’t this soft in real life…
had been fantasizing a bit of maybe chilling with ya in some swank sauna place in the city – but, oh no, it would probably just be toooooo hot…
and, just to be a little weirder, yeah, I got plans in my head to try and hang out with most of y’all…you know, at different kind of places and stuff…
definitely a dream to get out on the court with some of you all too…
see what your old man moves look like…
Brown said it in a post game presser that this team has experienced everything and is prepared for anything that can happen. This has been evident during the meaningful moments of the first two games. The Spurs and Golden Child Wemby, for all their talent, have not been and will not be ready for those moments. The fan base deserves the title win at MSG and I really hope that happens.
They’re beginning to come up with the Spurs’ mugging compilations now:
https://www.threads.com/@teacherman_91/post/DZQRjA7jJTt?xmt=AQG0YZLJqGUDGZxT1ImhMq9F4Xlemsqnaa0lgu40wVFHtBaD3GKaUk7OxiktDF1Lh8_r7VnV&slof=1
Maybe we’re overthinking this “what’s wrong with Brunson?” shit.
If the Spurs are made to play legal defense in game 3 all these guys will have 3 fouls in the 1Q.
What do Brunson & KAT have to do to earn as much respect as a bunch of entitled kids wearing Spurs uniforms who seem to be borrowing the reputation of their predecessors?
I think SGA probably deserves an apology. Brunson should flop, too, if that’s what it takes.
You folks are making the curious assumption because you and your coterie of friends unilaterally hate Trump, that other folks who earn 30-50M per year don’t prefer Trump’s policies to say Bernie’s or Mamdani’s.
I’m going to take a wild guess that more folks in that building who can easily afford those crazy prices prefer the Orange policies than those of the DSA.
although doogie still being be able to do a handstand at 82 frightens me a bit…
maybe doogie might be in just a little too good of shape for me…still would be fun…
okay, new rule on future hang out plans…only doing real physical activity stuff with folks in way worse shape than me…not sure my brittle ego could well handle the reverse…
note to self: set aside and save some sedentary group/pair activities for those folks whom you meet fitter than yourself…
Yeah despite all of this joy, I still have the #lolknicks gene and am therefore mentally prepared for a game 3 loss.
With all the expectations and the high of stealing two away games, a let down in game 3 seems likely. But this is a team that we know will regroup for game 4.
In other words: I’ll settle for a gentleman’s sweep!
p.s. — you’re welcome, Hubert. I just wanted to roll out today’s obligatory Reub post so he wouldn’t have to.
Geo, As an inducement to get you to NYC, I’ll take you to https://www.abathhouse.com/flatiron Don’t know if Hubie belongs to Aman or Core clubs, but if he does, Im sure he’ll take you. When* Knicks win the chip, you really need to come and celebrate with us.
* my late mom has been admonishing me to not give the Knicks a kinahora, but I believe that Knicks. Will. Win.
Nate Silver’s tracker has him at 39% approval, lower than Biden at this point in his term and lower than Trump at this point in his first term. He’s hanging a -19.1 net approval.
Approving of Trump is basically a kind of niche, cult phenomenon at this point. Obviously that wasn’t always the case, as evidenced by him winning, but he blew through the goodwill he had very quickly.
He is going to get booed very, very vociferously.
I’ll tell you exactly what it’s saying, Owen:
“I came in with a great plan”
“I know what the fuck I’m doing”
“Who adjusts: Him or me? Me. I adjust. (But) the adjustment’s not enough. Every once in a while, we’re not on the same page. We talk about it. We talk about it. I adjust again. A little bit better. He’s feeling good. We talk about it. We talk — maybe we take a couple of steps backwards because what I did, he doesn’t like, which is fine.
It’s my job as a coach to fit whatever scheme we have on both sides of the floor to all of our players. And if you’re a great player, I’ve got to make a little bit more adjustments, or I’ve got to give a little bit more than you do. We finally got to a point where he was comfortable, (where) I was comfortable, Jalen (Brunson) was comfortable, OG (Anunoby) was comfortable, Mikal (Bridges) was comfortable. And to me, that’s what the regular season is about. The regular season is about finding your way so you can prepare for this time of the year “
“I had to spend the whole damn season Jedi mind tricking that MFer into making him think it was actually his plan so he would do it.”
My old office was above the first Bathhouse in Williamsburg. It always skeevved me out. Then it it came out it was a den of mold and UTIs.
Frank needs to kick his feed in the ass and get it to work…
made a difference in the thunder/spurs series…
when adam silver has to address these questions directly in the media, on air, it makes a difference…
so, frank do that voodoo that you do – and gets to scrolling, surfing or whatever they call it these days sir…
As my italicized take on it a couple weeks back hit on, that’s exactly what happened.
Letting people think your ideas are theirs is actually very good management.
I don’t know oaktrees, maybe you and E can hang out somewhere – comfortable, cozy and safe…
me and Bo are getting near naked together and wilding out 😊
Cancel the Bathhouse geo. We’ll do the Russian & Turkish Baths on east 10th. Old School
You’re almost certainly underestimating the number of “those boomers had it so easy, now look at me so all accomplished and still can’t afford a brownstone in Greenpoint or Park Slope, how dare anyone tell me I can’t have a Starbucks every now and then?!?!?!?!” types who will be there.
My own preference will always be the Hawks series just post-Covid, when most of the normal season ticket holders didn’t show up and they just opened the ticketing up to everyone, and 75% of the crowd was 25-35 year old dudes. Insane, old-school crowds for three gloriously atmospheric games. Game 7 of the Pacers series two years ago wasn’t even close to that and the Finals games, while they’ll be louder than Game 7 Pacers, won’t be either.
I’d be shocked if there’s a “ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States” kind of moment.
I think he just sits in the owner’s box, as out of sight as possible, and this is a whole big nothing burger.
I’d change the assassination attempt for Trump sitting courtside and Wembanyama falling over him and causing a medical emergency. You get the same MSG evacuation as before, but you also get to declare war on France afterwards.
and thank you again the oh so great and wise wizard Mike K….
life without ads is oh so sweet…fat fingers kept clicking on stuff didn’t wanna see…
may I ask – have you had any stage names over the years for your performances?
Post of the year…
Dolan’s gonna put him up on the screen just as a troll.
nice Bo, mister clarence had already recommended…
I forgot the name, there was a nice one (didn’t require membership) somewhere middle-ish in the city that I saw online…had the sauna (i love high dry heat so much, so cleansing), along with a couple of different type pools…
confession time…I’ve never had a massage, not like pro thing…think I’m about due…still haven’t done the manicure thing, but getting closer to doing that too…
already got the color picked out: mercury…
No wonder your game’s showing old-timer skills!
ma had this sayin’ from her dad (cajun):
Don’t let the bastards get you down
lots of bastards out there…fuck ’em and forget about them…or, put a plan together, participate in action…
take action, but, don’t let it fuck with your day…better things are everywhere…
@geo: I’m 62, not 82. And it’s a headstand, not a handstand. (Maybe those are actually the same thing? I dunno, but I don’t think so.) 🙂
Jesus Geo! We’re all pulling for a happy ending here.
Headstand is not a handstand.
watching the Knicks right now, both on and off the court, fills me with something almost like parental pride…
ha, thinking of it, been a lot cheaper, less stressful than actual kids…
took forever to find an identity…early on maybe walker, athlete, stoner, soldier…when it came to group identification though, wasn’t until my fifties realized I fit in mostly under the “gamer” category…which is cool…
I’ll tell ya though – this fan feeling is working for me right now…oh wait, that may just be the edible kicking in…
Not prominently displaying him would certainly be the optimal play from a rational POV, but the thing about Donald Trump is he is deeply delusional and may well believe he is adored in his hometown. I’m not sure he could take Dolan, or anyone else, explaining to him that it’s in his best interest to not be featured. I mean, if he was capable of understanding that kind of thing he wouldn’t be going to the game in the first place.
So I think there will be some kind of Jumbotron display, likely at Trump’s insistence, but they’ll try to keep it as brief as possible and basically hope people don’t notice in time to boo. There will still be a lot of booing though, and Trump will either simply state that he got a Big Beautiful ovation, or say MSG was full of illegal immigrants who came up with $12,000 for a ticket.
“,,,the high of stealing two away games…”
The Knicks didn’t steal anything. They destroyed the Spurs in crunch time of game 1 and won going away. They almost had a game that they largely dominated stolen from them by the refs.
That’s what mentally tough teams do.
“He is going to get booed very, very vociferously.”
Duh. And it’s not even all due to his politics. It’s due to him being too selfish to spare Knicks fans of the drama of his presence. Not even his fans want him there.
🤭
the reffing ain’t been right though…
home court calls are one thing – some of last night’s calls were freaking impacting the game…
Hopefully there’s a shitstorm of media coverage about it monday…
hopefully it dominates sports’ talk/print/whatever…
I live down by the Wall St one on Fulton. Supposed to be great.
50/50 or more Dolan sends the captured faces to ICE. Good chance he already has. If there’s any kind of disturbance at the game, that 50 goes to like 95.
I do agree with Bob that I think y’all underestimate the likelihood that he’ll have a lot of supporters in the crowd. The Knicks get a lot of fans on the LIRR; Nassau & Suffolk counties are Trump strongholds. And Wall Street, in my experience, is about 55/45 pro trump.
Yes. The post covid hawks playoff games were unmatched. Even crazier than the Donte game against Philly.
He might have some supporters in the crowd, but the people who don’t like him LOATHE him. About half of the country is in the “strongly disapprove” category.
I’m hoping there’s a brief Jumbotron moment, a loud and satisfying boo, and that’s the end of it, and that Fatty decides he’s seen enough and goes back to binge watching The View and screaming at Joy Behar instead of returning for Game 4
I re-watched the last 2+ minutes of game 2, and we had sooo many opportunities to close out the game after the Spurs comeback. OG and Brunson missing bunnies, Brunson clanking a 3 where there was no one within 10 feet of him.
So in a way the Spurs were lucky to even have a chance to win the game at the end. But if Wemby makes that shot, we’d be rehashing all those missed shots over and over again in our nightmares.
Yeah I felt like we got a little nervous right there. Understandable IMO. They were basically about to land the KO punch, and it made them a little wobbly. But they recovered, and I suspect they got it out of their system.
As someone on the Spurs side said, though, we had to beat them by 15 pts just to win that game by 1, and we did.
See, hubs, I feel the opposite.
I want us to race out to a big lead early. When we’ve done that in the previous rounds we’ve broken the will of the other team. Plus with the way the refs have been officiating I’d rather go ahead and show the league that this is our year and it’s not worth trying to fight it.
In watching the highlights, I think Brunson was still a bit banged up from Game 1. These three days should help him. It might help some of the Spurs as well (particularly Wemby, Castle and Fox), but probably a net plus for the Knicks.
The Knicks should play it at home, just to fuck with the Spurs. We don’t need a hype intro to beat your ass. We’re going to beat your ass calm without a sweat.
Such a SHAME the NBA finals was RUINED by the DEMONCRATS. I attended as the ESTEEEMED guest of the New York Knicks owner, a once beautiful city that I BUILT with my own slightly larger than average hands — that has been ruined by the LOSER MAYOR MAMDANI or the MAD MUSLIM COMMUNIST as I call him. The New York Knicks true fans, I could see many of their happy rich faces from my box cheering me, because of all the wars I have ended, and how great I have made this country. But of course due to TDS, the VIOLENT LEFTISTS couldn’t let me have that. No they paid $12k a ticket to bus in people to boo me, many of them illegal immigrants who don’t even know how basketball is played and what a touchdown is. SO SAD.
(I predict) Trump will be featured during the national anthem, holding his hand over his heart, and no one will have the balls to boo bc America.
I would say a third of it will be his vitriolic politics, a third of it will be the crap he’s made of the economy/oil/wars/country, and a third because everyone is sick of him being injected into every facet of life.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!!
In the US Open last year – so a similarly moneyed crowd – the USTA literally instructed broadcasters not to show crowd reactions or booing in order not to upset his majesty.
There actually used to be a time in very recent American history where there would be a smattering of boos when a president showed up for no other reason than cranky just because.
The real underlying reason of course was that the president, any president, was a “big shot” and has real actual power over people and so people took their opportunity to kind of return the favor, as it were. The concept of actually and affirmatively “admiring the president” out loud, especially for an urban 30-ish-year-old was virtually nonexistent and it was flatly unthinkable in 1988 or 1993 that there would come a time when 30-year-olds on SNL would earnestly and unironically serenade an outgoing president by warbling out a song like “To Sir, With Love” on national television.
Some of it is just booing authority figures being kinda normal. Think of how David Stern and now Adam Silver get booed at the NBA draft.
I had missed the video of Wemby falling on his knees in the tunnel after game 2.
I’m with Hubie: this shit is carefully crafted PR. The whole “my life depends on it” is immensely narcissistic.
Quite the French Open final…
The flip side of the era when people booed presidents just because was that presidents of both parties accepted it and rolled with it as an admirable part of American democracy and moxie. The current president of course has no conception of that highly worthy norm and is likely psychologically incapable of understanding it even if it were painstakingly explained to him at great length.
I don’t normally believe in curses, but Dolan is truly tempting fate here.
Seemed pretty authentic to me. Dude just committed a massive brainfart that might have cost his team a championship. He’s 22 years old.
Maybe there is some engineering going on in some respects of his ongoings, but that looked to me like a genuine breakdown of a young kid who just fucked up in perhaps the biggest moment of his young life.
Of course, if it’s AI generated, that’s not on him.
Im really bummed that the arena won’t be full at tip off because of this shit.
Look at the US open shitshow: https://youtube.com/shorts/LLseUYxWYIY?si=aqhgioUw_Zah-214
Look at this half empty arena:
https://youtube.com/shorts/QwD7oI-jimI?si=nCuk_RsESjjf6rNf
You guys are underestimating him. He’ll take a page from Bibi’s book and buy 100 seats, negotiating a special Dolan discount. They’ll figure out the give and take later. They’ll also figure out the best distribution of said seats to get max impact, and of course the broadcast director will know where to focus.
Later people in the stadium would say the boooooos were ear splitting, but for the TV crowd it would be Trump the Great celebration.
Or maybe the U.S. is still functioning a better than Israel. Crossing my fingers.
The only thing that I know for certain about the future is that it has not happened yet.
I would not be surprised if Trump is booed like Glenn Close at the end Dangerous Liasons every time he is on the Jumbotron.
I could imagine a chant of “Fuck Donald Trump [clap] [clap] [clap clap clap]”!
My fantasy is a chant of “eighty-six [pause] Four D Seven”!
NYT in usual fashion makes a headline that blames the Mayor as well as the President for the cancellation of the watch party. Because of course the mayor is responsible.
There should be watch parties on every inch of free parkspace in this city. But I can’t even blame the Mayor, who I’m not that big a fan of anyway.
But instead its his billionaire police commissioner handler, who pumps the breaks on anything involving an iota of extra work from her cops.
Alight, now only 633k people in front of me in line on ticketmaster!
Dan Devine ran a starts comp between KAT and Pau: https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/4M75H
I am increasingly buying the KAT as Pau comparison, especially after that touching “you’re never alone” video to Jalen, and it’s giving me feels.
KAT has become the esteemed big brother of the group. The one who quietly gives everyone confidence because he’s on their side. It’s such a remarkable arc for him, bc honestly he seemed like the black sheep of the family 6 months ago.
It’s worth noting KAT got engaged back in December. Maybe he just matured. Marriage and starting a family will do that to a man, you know?
Dan Devine ran a starts comp between KAT and Pau:
i made a little similarity machine that allows you to play with the importance of certain stat categories to find the least bad statistical match for a player. pau only comes in 16th under kat for full career. kat’s matches in general have low similarity scores due to his unique profile. check out who comes in first on the default settings:
https://www.entropyisrude.com/player-similarity.html
Haaaaaaa
I wouldn’t expect KAT’s growth into a Pau-like role to be captured by similarity scores, though. It’s more about leadership.
Coincidentally I thought Julius had a similar role, too. I could tell by the roommates episode that Jalen and Josh had a level of reverence for him going back to their AAU days where Julius was kind of a big deal to them.
For most of his tenure here I got the sense KAT’s teammates thought he was a fuck up. I put a lot of stock in OG yelling at him and the anonymous sources griping about him to the media.
Now that seems to be all gone, and they seem to actually look up to him.
The NYT is like your “liberal” friend, who never says anything nice about the Democrats. I cancelled all subscriptions to them during 2016’s relentless articles on “butter emails”, and to this day I have no idea what kind of Wordle player I am, because I refuse to make a login with them.
I don’t think players on the team “look up to” KAT as much as they simply gained respect for him due to his willingness to enhance his game to the level it’s at right now. He’s always been known as a good guy, and his tremendous ordeal during/after COVID are well-known and easy to sympathize with.
My guess is that his disconnect with Brunson and the established guys was that a) he was just annoying to play with because of his lack of focus/slow processing, and b) that he probably had a major adjustment to go from 8 years on the team that drafted him to a team with an established core of ‘Nova guys where he didn’t really fit in, c) enduring a bitter playoff loss probably exacerbated that disconnect, d) having a new coach come in and “demand” that he change his approach, e) the very heavy Giannis trade rumors messing with his head.
If anything, I think he has gotten past all of that stuff and is now squarely in the fold, accepted for who he is, and winning his teammates over with his clutch, heady play. I would be surprised if there’s much of a “big brother” team beyond that he’s “big” and that the team is very close in a “band of brothers” sense. They are all pretty close in age and experience.
From a quick glance at the numbers, KAT is better than Pau offensively, but I’d go out on a short limb and guess Pau was better defensively.
Funny — ptmilo’s similarity says KAT’s most similar is Julius Randle!
Both Brunson and KAT sound like they have pretty significant sniffles/colds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNVKTzWXqoE
If Trump forces Bibi not to escalate another round of war with Iran I’d cheer for him like mad on league pass tomorrow night. (Absolutely last politics post for me, while hoping for a missile free night in Tel Aviv.)
Stay safe, darules.
Well once again that scabrous fuck has ruined yet another beautiful thing, in this case this site.
His ability to destroy and make things ugly is second to none.
I think only folks oozing venom can do that. The man is attending a game. Previous Presidents have attended the Super Bowl, the World’s Series, NCAA Championships, etc.
Donald Trump was the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl, will be the first sitting President to attend the NBA finals, and while I can’t find documentation of this last one, I don’t recall a previous sitting president attending the NCAA national championship football game (Trump really fucked me personally over with that one).
I know part of the MAGA ethos requires believing that everyone else is also a narcissistic, corrupt jackass, but it sure seems like previous presidents tended to think to themselves “well that does sound fun, but I would greatly inconvenience a hell of a lot of people, so I’ll pass.”
Actually, Bob, the first sitting POTUS to ever attend a Super Bowl was Donald Trump.
And the first sitting POTUS to ever attend an NCAA championship game was Donald Trump.
And the first sitting POTUS to ever attend an NBA Finals game will be Donald Trump.
He’s not the first sitting POTUS to attend the World Series, but he’s the first since G W Bush, who only attended to game 3 of the World Series to uplift the country in the wake of 9/11. I was at that game, and I can tell you his presence was most welcome. Heroic, even. This ain’t that.
Virtually certain Bill Clinton went to the Arkansas Final Four games in 1994, including their championship win over Duke.
Personally not really sure how or why it being the literal finals matters — as I wrote above, Obama attended at least one Elite Eight game and security isn’t any different for that than it would be for the final — but you boys can carry on as you see fit. To me, the bigger walkaway is how and why the country and culture can’t seem to carry off something this monumentally simple anymore.
Considering the events of the past 24 hours, we all know that Trump has much more important ways to be spending his time right now ahead of attending *any* sort of sporting event. We also know with approximately 80 percent certainty that he won’t see it that way.
Checking the archives, not only did Bill Clinton in fact attend the Arkansas-Duke final in 1994, but earlier that day also attended the opening game of Cleveland’s new baseball stadium, then called Jacobs Field.
I was thinking NCAA football, because that’s what Trump just attended. But ok, you’ve found one other instance of it.
No, there are dozens and dozens of examples over history. Not to mention the fact that political conventions with all manner of Secret Service-eligible politicians have been held at places like the Garden numerous times in our history.
They aren’t that memorable, because there’s nothing memorable about them; it’s just a president going to a sporting event. Common, like breathing.
There’s never been anything like an “I’m not going, it’ll inconvenience people” doctrine issuing forth from the White House. That’s nonsense.
Only when you flagrantly move the goalposts like you did.
I never accepted the “finals” goalpost, because it’s silly. Securing the Elite Eight game Obama went to is no different than securing the Garden tomorrow.
“A random Wednesday night college basketball game that cost $20 to attend is not exactly the same thing as tomorrow.”
It is to the Secret Service and the host city. But in any event, presidents have gone to many more games than random Wednesday night ones.
Doesn’t the comparison to recent past presidents miss that they were generally public servants instead of shameless grifters bent on undermining the rule of law and abusing the office to grift the taxpayer and stroke their own egos?
Trump is not like them, so he shouldn’t get to do the things they do. He shouldn’t even be walking free in public, let alone polluting our moment.
Trump also went to the 2018 Alabama-Georgia football final.
Jimmy Carter went to the de facto football championship game in the Sugar Bowl in 1981.
Nixon went to the de facto national championship Arkansas-Texas game in 1969.
JFK attended what was probably the de facto national championship game in the 1963 Orange Bowl.
Practically every president has gone to the Army-Navy game, some multiple times. Beyond that, there’s a long list of presidents going to big-time college football games.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/01/19/donald-trump-us-presidents-college-football-gamestheodore-roosevelt-indiana-miami/88165579007/
Nothing like KBers giving this shameless attention whore exactly what he wants….which is all the conversation being about him.
But hey, have at it!
If you stop to consider that the city (absurdly) agreed to close Penn Station on workdays so that the ridiculous FIFA can have the trains to themselves to transport their fans to World Cup matches in the Meadowlands, you’ll then be well on the way to understanding why Obama could go to the Elite Eight, Clinton to the Final, Carter to the football final, and on and on, with such natural ease … and why on the other hand, Trump’s visit to the Garden is such an immense shitshow.
The enshittification continues apace. That’s the story.
Mike, if what you mean is to play the same circus music under the Knicks introduction at home, that’s brilliant. Top-shelf trolling.
What music did San Antonio Ii play? You can’t tell frm the Chinese NBA feed.
That is 100% what I mean.
You’re trying to demean us with this song? OK I’ll play the song – and still beat you silly.
Also, I read the article about the canceled watch party. It says the party will be moved to another location, not totalky cancelled.
That’s the default visiting team music the Spurs always play. Cute and all, not anything worth paying attention to.
Looks like there’s not gonna be a stock market crash tomorrow, so that angle won’t work ….
LOL
I can agree to the comparison, but only if we’re talking about KAT pre-game 4 against the Hawks. Since then he’s playing like a top10 player and Julius never got to that level of play.
How about that? 🧡💙
1993 Bulls then gave the Barkley’s Suns a little hope by losing game 3, then won game 4, and then lost again in game 5, all in Chicago. Bulls won game 6 in Phoenix, by 1 pt, i think, and completed the three-peat.
1995 Rockets went on to win the 2 games in Houston and completed the sweep of the Shaq’s Magic.
How will it go with us? That’s what we’re about to find out.
Amare..
https://www.tmz.com/2026/06/05/amare-stoudemire-president-trump-ovation-knicks-garden/
I agree with E that in the past, presidents could show up to sporting events without a giant hullabaloo ensuing, and I think that that was a good thing writ large. I disagree with E that we can no longer do that because of polarization or whatever (if that’s his reasoning). Biden–shit, even Bush–could’ve attended an NBA finals game without causing any issue. The reason a president attending a sports game can no longer be a non-event, rather, is because our sitting one and his party has politicized every aspect of everyday life, sports included. The Democratic contribution to this sad state of affairs pales in comparison.
In any case, I welcome the basketball being played so I can studiously ignore whoever is in attendance, no matter their standing.
I was aiming at something way more mundane and literal, which is why presidents have always gone to sporting events but there’s never been anything like the shitshow on the ground at the US Open tennis tournament from the clip Marechal posted, or like the massive imposition on everyone at the Garden tomorrow, until now.
We used to seamlessly — or essentially seamlessly — commandeer presidents into sporting events with appropriate Secret Service protection and it now appears that we can’t do that anymore. Nothing more than that.
Yeah, people are bitching and whining about this including for political reasons, but people bitch and whine about everything now, and that wasn’t really what I was getting at — though that’s certainly an interesting topic in its own right.
For reasons that should be obvious, I hope that the Knicks lead by 39 points in the 3Q:
New York Knicks: 86
San Antonio Spurs: 47
Good omen for today — I finally got a team that was 82-0
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