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A few hundred lucky New York Knicks fans will have a chance to see the newly minted NBA champions up close after the team’s ticker-tape parade in New York City on Thursday. The city and Mayor Zohran Mamdani are giving out 600 free tickets to fans to attend a ceremony on the City Hall plaza after the parade. The parade route will start in Lower Manhattan and take the Knicks up Broadway and through the Canyon of Heroes, and conclude at City Hall for a festive celebration where Mamdani will give the Knicks keys to the city. Fans can enter a public lottery at NBA.com for a chance to win tickets. The lottery will select 300 winners, each of whom will receive two tickets. It will will run until 11 a.m. ET Wednesday.
Aaron Rupar: Zohran Mamdani on the viral "my mayor's Muslim" Knicks fan: "Thanks to him, there are a lot of people who have just been running up to me over the last few weeks just shouting, 'My Mayor's Muslim!' I said, 'It's true. I am.'"
The young Democratic socialist mayor claimed he paid “roughly $1,000” for his nosebleeds standing-room spot for Monday night’s Game 3 between the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, though sources with knowledge of the matter said the ticket actually cost him $750. Regular plebs had to shell out an average of around $7,500 for a ticket to the high-profile event. But Mamdani’s team reached out to MSG ahead of the game and told reps the mayor wanted a half-dozen tickets to attend the NBA Finals ahead of the games this week, and asked for the cheapest seats, according to sources briefed on the conversations.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Parade. Thursday. Manhattan.
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On Wednesday afternoon, hours before his team’s historic 29-point comeback that gave them a commanding 3–1 series lead, James Dolan went on New York sports-talk radio and laced into Zohran Mamdani and police commissioner Jessica Tisch. “I don’t think they have faith in their own police force,” Dolan told Craig Carton. “We do! We know they know what they’re doing. Honestly, the mayor’s office and the commissioner do not have the experience to do this. They’ve never managed anything like this before.” Mamdani said the team did file a permit with the city for a watch party, but it requested only between 500 and 999 people when it could have asked for more. Dolan ultimately decided to not have the party at all. “Mr. Dolan has now decided to cancel the watch party,” Mamdani tweeted.
The mayor ultimately made the game available on LinkNYC kiosks around the city. The sides released a flurry of statements throughout the week. Mamdani spokesperson Joe Calvello said Wednesday that Dolan “seems hell bent on making sure the city has rancid vibes for the finals run.” And with less than an hour before tip-off, MSG released a statement saying the arena and team “declined to use the permit granted by Mayor Mamdani’s office” because of the small number of fans allowed to gather. “We did not think it was fair to just allow a small group to celebrate outside the Garden when everybody else was being shut out.”
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: MSG requested a permit for a watch party for 500-999 fans. We approved that permit for 999 fans. Mr. Dolan has now decided to cancel the watch party. I know this is breaking hearts across our city. But if there's one thing Knicks fans don't need permission for, it's showing up for our team wherever we may be — no matter the block or the borough. Knicks in five.
Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks are mad at the New York Police Department and Mayor Zohran Mamdani for not letting them throw a big enough party for Game 4 of the NBA Finals. In a statement released Tuesday, the team called NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mamdani the city’s “biggest party poopers” for putting security restrictions around the Garden for Wednesday night’s contest against the San Antonio Spurs. While the city has approved a watch party, the venue is complaining that the level of security is unnecessary. “The last several victories the Knicks have had have been celebrated by thousands and thousands outside MSG. The joy and happiness were palpable everywhere,” a statement from the venue said. “Apparently Mayor Mamdani and Police Commissioner Tisch, despite what they say, don’t want to see these celebrations happen.”
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Couldn't agree more. We'll win this series on the court (even if the refs refuse to call a flagrant on Wemby), not by targeting, harassing, or attacking Spurs fans. Knicks in 5.
Also seen at the home game the Knicks lost were billionaire Jets owner Woody Johnson, “Marty Supreme” director Josh Safdie, Woody Allen, President Trump, Fat Joe, Mayor Mamdani, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez Eli Manning, Rick Pitino, Francisco Lindor, Patrick Ewing, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Allan Houston, John Franco, Juan Soto, Todd Zeile and hockey stars Jonathan Quick, Adam Fox and Vincent Trocheck.
Trump, invited to attend Game 3 of the finals by Knicks owner James Dolan, was seated in a suite near midcourt, halfway up the stands, in a box surrounded by bulletproof glass constructed for his visit. NBA commissioner Adam Silver joined the suite in the second quarter and spoke with Trump, who was snacking on a bucket of fries and sipping from a Diet Coke bottle. Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump was also spotted in the suite, as were Dolan, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino, among others. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was also at the game — he said he paid $1,000 for a standing-room-only ticket near the rafters.
Tommy Beer: Mayor Mamdani announced this morning that Bryant Park will host a Watch Party for Game 3 tonight. It will be free and open to the public, with a maximum capacity of 5,000 attendees. Registration is required. Fans can begin registering on the NYC dot gov website at noon: