NEW YORK – Ahead of the biggest New York Knicks game a generation has ever seen, team owner James Dolan has gotten into a war of words with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The bickering began when plans for a watch party outside Madison Square Garden, a now-common sight during the Knicks’ playoff run, were scrapped ahead of Wednesday night’s game. The NYPD said there was no watch party allowed for Game 3 due to President Donald Trump’s appearance.
Well, Dolan decided to cancel Game 4’s watch party, which was slated for 1,000 ticketed fans, because “we’re about millions of people.”
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“He gave us the gift of allowing us to screen 999 people and tell 20,000 no… Our hope was that the mayor and the commissioner would change their minds and then we’d put the screens up,” Dolan told WFAN in a rare interview on Wednesday.
“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 is trying to kill, they don’t want the celebration.”
However, at around 5 p.m. ET, Mamdani took to X to say that MSG had actually requested the permit for 500-999 fans, and Dolan “decided to cancel the watch party.”
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Roughly an hour before Game 4’s tip, MSG went scorched earth on Mamdani again.
“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,” a statement said.
The City Reporter unearthed the permit application MSG submitted, saying that they were given the option to apply for even an “unknown” amount of people.
A watch party, hosted by the city, in Bryant Park on Monday, led to unruliness, which has not exactly been an uncommon theme throughout the Knicks’ Finals run.
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Street closures have been in effect for both NBA Finals game days. Dolan even said it would be easier to get inside of “Area 51” than MSG for Wednesday’s game.
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