Inside the NBA Finals: How the Very Important President’s Favorite Sport Reveals a Hidden Power Play

Before Monday’s game, Knicks players tried to downplay the impact the president’s attendance would have; only center Mitchell Robinson, a proud owner of a Trump flag, didn’t really bother. “He’s welcome here,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on ESPN before tipoff. “What makes sports so special, especially when there’s so much that divides people, is it’s something we have in common. We should look for those things and build off that.”

It was a marked retreat for a league that once had a far more adversarial relationship with Trump – one defined by the president’s public insults aimed at LeBron James, the rescinding of a White House invitation to the Golden State Warriors after Steph Curry opted out of celebrating the 2017 championship, and a broader political rupture during the player-led protests that followed George Floyd’s killing. But Silver’s comments underscore how fully the sports world bows to the Very Important President now.

That reverence was on display at MSG on Monday night. Before games, the Knicks distribute a VIP list to the press to identify who’s who – but Trump wasn’t included. Why would he be? The Very Important President looms well above such formalities. He doesn’t sit courtside next to Spike Lee and Tina Fey (Can’t risk the optics of seating a convicted felon too close to Law & Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni, after all). He watches from on high alongside Knicks owner James Dolan, from a suite encased in plexiglass shielding with extra security. But just when it seemed Trump had won the status game, the damnedest thing happened: the party passed him by.

The real juice wasn’t inside the plexiglass suite with the president, Trump’s granddaughter Kai, secretary of the interior Doug Burgum and Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff. It was down on the floor with Jay-Z, Derek Jeter and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel – somehow both in the middle of the scene and easy to miss. It was with the Knicks crowd that endured the long lines and booed the president when he appeared on the big screen during the national anthem. For all of his clout, the Very Important President couldn’t compete with the star power.