The Knicks cancelled the watch party for Game 4 of the NBA Finals outside Madison Square Garden despite getting the permit from the mayor’s office to host an event with a capacity of 999 people.
“Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks declined to use the permit that was granted by Mayor Mamdani’s office due to the fact that only 1,000 people would be allowed into the area and they would need to be ticketed, leaving the tens of thousands of people who want to come to The Garden to celebrate the Knicks out in the cold.”
“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,” MSG said in a statement while announcing the decision.
Shortly before that, James Dolan, the Knicks’ owner, appeared for a radio interview on WFAN, just hours prior to Game 4 of the NBA Finals, where he called out the New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his office for questionable intervention into the Knicks’ celebrations.
“We love the NYPD, we know the captains, we know the chiefs, right? They can handle this. They don’t need this, right? And if you ask them, and they can answer unfettered, they would tell you they can handle this, etc.”
“It’s really the mayor’s office. I cannot explain their decisions on this, but it makes absolutely no sense at all.”
“And the real reason that I, you know, decided to call you up just this afternoon to say, ‘Look, I want to come down’ is because I know there are a lot of people, right, who are in their cars right now, right, and who are headed down to the Garden and to the Midtown area. And I’m just telling you, as much time as you’ve allotted, you have not allotted enough time.”
“Because of the restrictions that are being put on this area. I mean, as I said, you would think we were guarding… we are guarding an alien, but I mean, like Fort Knox, it’s incredible.”
“Even if you come by train or by subway, they’re not letting you up. They’re going to push you outside of the forbidden zone and make you come through magnetometers, and you’re going to have to show that you have a reason to be there. And this is all really designed around stopping people from celebrating around Madison Square Garden. That’s what this is about.”
President Donald Trump had confirmed earlier yesterday that he will not be attending Game 4 of the NBA Finals. So there is no justifiable reason for the Mayor’s office to want to still implement the forbidden zones outside the Garden.
When asked if he knew the primary concern of the mayor’s office for implementing the ban, when Madison Square Garden had managed crowds of over 20,000 people before as well, Dolan had no concrete answer.
“I don’t know. But I, you know, you can only conjecture. I don’t think that they have faith in their own police force. We do, we think they know what they’re doing, but honestly, the mayor’s office and the commissioner, too, do not have the experience to do this right.”
“I mean, they have never managed anything like this before, and it’s like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it’s coming out the sides, and you know that’s what I think that’s part of [the reasoning]. We’re seeing a lot of fear from the mayor’s office. A lot of anxiety. They’re sitting there trying to say, ‘Well, well, we’re big Knicks fans.’ But this isn’t. They’re not Knicks fans. He’s not a Knick.”
The Mayor responded to the Knicks’ decision against holding the Game 4 watch party, saying he was heartbroken to hear that decision
“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,” Mamdani wrote. “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.”
But Dolan seemed adamant about his thought that this was a much bigger issue than just a watch party.
“Don’t get these things confused. Go ahead. This is not really about a watch party, right? We put up two, you know, fairly decent-sized screens right alongside and, you know, I don’t think, you know, that you can get much more than a thousand or so people to to that will see the screen, right?” said Dolan.
“This is about celebrating the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, at the mecca of basketball. This is what the mayor’s office and the commissioner’s office are trying to kill. They don’t want the celebration.”
“I can’t tell you why they don’t want the celebration, right? I’m not sure they know why they don’t want the celebration. But they clearly don’t want it. And they’re turning the entire area. And we should note this, right? It’s basically the same area from when the president was here.”
Earlier, the explanation given to the general public for the ban in Game 3 was that President Trump was in attendance, and this was the first time an NBA Finals game hosted an active U.S. president during his tenure, so the Secret Service justified its decision to support the restrictions.
However, in Game 4, President Trump will not be in attendance, so the question still remains: why would the Mayor’s office implement these restrictions when neither the people nor the Madison Square Garden management team asked for this? Mayor Mamdani caught up with Fox News and spoke his mind on the rationale behind this decision.
“So I want to go through a couple of things. First of all, any New Yorker can go to those bars and restaurants around Midtown, across that area.”
“And second of all, the procedures we have put in place for Game 4 do not have anything to do with Game 3, as you heard from our Police commissioner at the security briefing that there were going to be increased security procedures to ensure everyone is safe.”
“The procedures we’re going to have are going to be akin to what the NYPD does for any event of this scale, be it July 4th or New Year’s Day… The procedures for Game 4 were longstanding, just as the commissioner shared.”
“However, no one should be getting threatened or attacked based on wearing a Spurs jersey. And as excited as New Yorkers are, and a vast majority of whom are celebrating responsibly, those kinds of incidents are unacceptable, and we do not stand for that in our city,” said Mamdani.
Mayor Mamdani claims that the commissioner clarified before Game 3 that there would be additional measures in place for Game 4, so it’s not like they did not warn the New Yorkers about this.
“However, given that the President is not attending Game 4, there are several things not being replicated from Game 3.”
Given that the Knicks can no longer sweep the Spurs to seal the championship at home in Game 4 tonight, the scope for ‘celebrations’ does seem to be limited for the Mayor’s office to worry about the Knicks fans.
But if the Spurs win tonight, they should ideally announce any of these pre-planned measures for Game 6 as well, that is scheduled for June 16 if the Knicks lose Game 4, so that New Yorkers get a fair warning on what to expect that day.
Beyond that, this just comes down to a difference of opinion between the Mayor’s office and Madison Square Garden’s management. It will be interesting to see what happens if the Spurs force a Game 6 tonight.
