Why The Knicks Should Not Visit Trump’s White House

By Colin Benjamin

Photos: Vernon Verdree|Wikimedia Commons

After a 53-year Championship drought the New York Knicks are again NBA Champions.

On Thursday, long-suffering Knicks fans celebrated with the 2026 Knicks team during the ‘Parade of Champions.’ The celebrations should continue throughout the weekend.

However, it is time for the Knicks team roster to seriously consider this troubling question: should they acquiesce to the wishes of clueless Knicks owner James Dolan, or take a principled stand and rebuff the invitation to visit the xenophobic Trump White House?

Dolan clearly wants the team to go to the White House, because of his very close friendship to Trump. But with all the goodwill this Knicks team now has with New Yorkers they should ask themselves whether it is a good look to visit the White House of the most selfish, divisive, and racist, president of our time–and perhaps in American history?

Unfortunately, James Dolan is the main problem here. He was the one who decided to invite this hateful petulant president to a Knicks game, where Trump disrupted the Knicks mojo; caused traffic disruptions; caused businesses to lose money; while falling asleep at the game, before leaving early. Yet, Dolan accuses New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, not Trump, of not really being a Knicks fan.

That NBA Finals 3 game was the first Knicks home Finals game since 1999. Yet, Dolan invited, or asked, Trump to come to the game, creating a disruptive spectacle, when the sole focus should have been on this Knicks team–and the Knicks fans. Will Knicks players be fearful of telling Dolan no because he is the owner of the team?

This Knicks squad is a very special one that was made so, partly, by the unselfishness of team captain Jalen Brunson. When a player leaves $113 million on the table–so that the Knicks organization could surround him with the players necessary to win a NBA Championship it tells us much about him. Brunson by this singular act proved he is indeed a winner. But it highlights something else: Brunson is a rare unselfish human-being.

The unselfish nature of Brunson, and this Knicks team, is one reason why they should not visit the Trump White House. Trump represents the exact opposite of this Knicks team.

Donald Trump’s character is antithetical to what this Knicks team exemplifies. Trump is a selfish me-first person who continues to do great damage to America, and the global community, because of his narcissistic bullying behavior.

Ponder this: we are now told this fool has reached a deal with Iran to stop the war of aggression, he started. But, if we are honest, we must ask did he achieve anything meaningful with this war or has he tarnished America on the international stage, while causing much despair and death?

Because of this Iran war, gas prices have gone thru the roof and, along with his disastrous tariffs, Americans are being harmed daily by the cost of living crisis he created. The Knicks team must remember the main reason we now have a Mayor Mamdani is because New York City residents agreed with Mamdani that we have an “affordability” crisis.

But Trump called Mamdani’s “affordability” agenda a hoax. “Not even a little bit,” was Donald Trump’s recent response to a reporter’s question about whether Americans’ financial struggles were motivating him to make a deal with Iran to stop the war. Trump went on to say, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”

Then there is the anger Trump engenders from New York City residents because of his racist immigration policies and his use of ICE agents to invade and traumatize city residents.

We all know Trump’s immigration policies are rooted in racial fearmongering. But we should also keep in mind that he particularly targets Blue cities and states. We saw what he did in California, D.C., Minnesota, and now in Newark, New Jersey. Presidents, before Trump, have always articulated the ideal that they would work for the benefit for all Americans–even those who didn’t vote for them.

But we now have a petty president who decides those who didn’t vote for him should be punished and vanquished. That also includes states that didn’t vote for Trump , like New York. These Knicks players should know Trump froze $60 million in funding for the Second Avenue Subway project, in New York City, to retaliate against New York for not voting for him and pushing back against his immigration policies.

New York City is one of the most culturally, and racially, diverse places in the world. The players on the Knicks reflect that diversity. A few examples to look at here.

Jose Alvarado, and Karl Anthony Towns, are both Latinos like those who are terrorized daily by Trump’s ICE, and Border Patrol, goons. Does MAGA mean anything more than make America white again?

O.G Anunoby’s heritage is Nigerian. Remember when Trump bombed areas in Nigeria, supposedly, to stop the killing of Christians? But isn’t this the same man who is aiding-and-abetting genocide now in Gaza, against Palestinians? Are we to pretend we don’t know he is restricting Africans from coming to America, because they are from “shithole countries?” This is also a man who tried to swindle the country of Zambia, out of their mineral wealth, by withholding HIV medicine to steal a better critical minerals deal, regardless of how many Zambians would end up dead. Think about that one long and hard.

Jalen Brunson, like Knicks great Patrick Ewing, has Jamaican heritage. Are the innocent fishermen, and others, who Trump has blown to bits in their boats, in international Caribbean waters, really that different from Patrick and Jalen?

While all this is the case, dumb ass Dolan had the nerve to accuse Mayor Mamdani, after the chaos caused by Trump’s game 3 appearance, of turning the streets outside Madison Square Garden into a “police state.” Dolan should ask the residents of Los Angeles, D.C., Minnesota, and New York City, about who is really turning America into a “police state?”

Giving the awful place America is in presently, this Knicks team should ask themselves
what message it would sent if they visit this despicable, deplorable, Trump White House?

Let’s also keep this in mind: all the other NBA Champions, during Trump’s time squatting in the White House, decided against visiting this mean-spirited maniacal madman.

The 2017 Golden State Warriors, the 2019 Toronto Raptors, the 2020 Los Angeles Lakers, and the Champions from last year, the Oklahoma City Thunder, all made the understandable decision not to have their pictures taken next to this vile scumbag president.

Will the Knicks become the first to legitimize this first ever convict president of America?

In 2017, when Stephen Curry declined to go to the Trump White House, Trump decided to rescind the invitation for the whole team. Not long after, LeBron James, rightly, referred to Trump as “You bum.”

Knicks players should ask themselves this: why should they visit this “bum,” for some bullshit photo-op, with a prejudiced president who relishes attacking Black athletes, like Colin Kaepernick, and who, right now, is busy promoting political policies detrimental to the health and well-being of Black Americans, Latinos, Muslims, and other non-white citizens of America?

Again congratulations to the Knicks team of 2026.

Happy Juneteenth.