New York’s socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani paid nearly $1,000 for a standing-room-only ticket and spent Game 3 of the NBA Finals shaking hands with Knicks fans and posing for selfies — while President Donald Trump watched the same game from behind bulletproof glass in an elevated VIP suite and was loudly booed during the national anthem.
The contrasting scenes at Madison Square Garden on Monday night provided a vivid illustration of two very different approaches to public politics, played out on the biggest stage in American sport as the New York Knicks faced the San Antonio Spurs.
Mamdani, who announced his ticket purchase to reporters in Central Park earlier in the day, was characteristically direct about his arrangements. “I bought my tickets for nearly $1,000 from Madison Square Garden. I’ll be going to tonight’s Game 3, and I’ll be standing for the duration of the game,” he said, insisting he had purchased the ticket “directly from the organisation itself.” Not everyone was entirely convinced — by Monday afternoon, tickets in the same standing-room-only section were appearing on resale sites for as much as $4,900, prompting some New Yorkers to wonder whether a mayoral discount had been quietly applied. Mamdani is, however, a familiar face in the cheaper sections of MSG, having previously been spotted at Knicks games in similarly modest seats.
While the mayor worked the crowd on the floor, Trump’s experience was rather more sequestered. The president was seated in a swanky elevated VIP suite, with Secret Service agents watching closely and the additional layer of bulletproof protective screens separating him from the arena below. The moment that drew the most attention came during the national anthem, sung by Grammy Award-nominated artist Avery Wilson, when Trump was shown on the jumbotron alongside his granddaughter Kai and Knicks owner James Dolan. The president was met with a wall of boos from the Madison Square Garden crowd in a moment broadcast live to the world. He appeared to take it in his stride, raising a wry smile before saluting and raising a fist to the anthem. His granddaughter Kai, standing at his side, was also seen appearing to smirk at the reaction.
Neither man occupied one of the $50,000 courtside seats that have become synonymous with NBA Finals celebrity culture — Trump confined to his suite by the demands of presidential security, Mamdani apparently confined to his section by choice or, at the very least, making a point of appearing that way.
