Major American sports teams, such as the reigning NBA champion New York Knicks, typically receive an invite from the sitting President to celebrate their championship at the White House. The defending champion—this year, that’s the Knicks—typically accepts the invite. These ceremonies should never be dismissed as entirely apolitical, but they weren’t polarizing until about inauguration day 2017.
The executive chairman of Madison Square Garden Company and controls the arena that holds the 2025-26 champion Knicks, agreed to revive the dormant tradition by accepting his friend’s invite on his team’s behalf. But, James Dolan’s friend is Harvey Weinstein Jeffrey Epstein Donald Trump.
In any other league but the one where its greatest player calls him a bum on Twitter, the visit probably happens anyway. Trump is known to enjoy the company of a strongman, including athletes. When the President was questioned by the press about a planned execution by firing squad, Mike Tyson literally stood by hith side. Heisman winner Johnny Manziel campaigned with Trump to help the president prevent a blue tsunami in Texas, and on Friday, promoted a Ken Paxton Aggies win parlay. Jaxson Dart also campaigned for Trump in a purply New York congressional district. Now the Giants QB is “a handsome guy,” and also “a beautiful guy.” Oh, the President built a UFC arena in his backyard (The White House).
But when asked about Dolan announcing the move, star point guard Jalen Brunson—who is the reigning NBA Finals MVP of the defending champion New York Knicks—was politely noncommittal, telling Variety his teammates “haven’t discussed it yet” but would “cross our bridge when we get to it.”
The Washington Wizards host the Knicks on December 18, but the bridge might already be here. On a Wednesday episode of ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A Smith reported that Dolan is angry with the team because “they don’t wanna go to the White House.” Still, Smith acknowledged that he hadn’t heard directly from any players, hedging his own take.
But, while we don’t know Smith’s sources, we can use the data available to us to make an informed inference that the veteran take artist is probably right. Most of the Knicks who won championship rings, or at least a box to hold their rings for when the team eventually sends them, probably don’t want to go.
While publicly available election and campaign data cannot tell us specifically who someone voted for, party registration and campaign info offers at least partial insight into how the Knicks most likely vote, give, and thus, support. eyeblack obtained voting record information from 36 Knicks players, coaches and front office executives who contributed to the title run, including the 14 eligible voters rostered by the 2025-26 team/ Using public information, we can find the registered Democrats, the formally noncommittal, and the most likely Trump voters guy who might regret his vote until gas prices rebound, and the fan favorite who donated to a pivotal swing election before swinging must-win games.
Allow me to make the case that outside of sweeping the new-look Wizards, this team, mostly, has no interest in being in Washington: