The TOI correspondent from Washington: In New York City, few traditions are more sacred than complaining about traffic and berating politicians. Donald Trump, the first US President to attend an NBA final, managed to trigger both on Monday night.As Trump’s visage appeared on the jumbotron during the national anthem before Game 3 between the local New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs at the Madison Square Garden, boos and jeers rumbled across the iconic arena that has hosted among others, Mohammed Ali, the Pope, and Narendra Modi. The moment instantly went viral on social media, generating thousands of comments, memes and jokes that competed for attention with the game itself, which the Knicks lost after a 13-game winning streak, causing an even greater meltdown among passionate fans. “At this point, if Trump showed up at a birthday party, I’d hide the cake. If he attended a wedding, I’d put the divorce lawyers on standby. If he visited a sunflower field, I’d start looking for wilted petals,” one anguished fan wrote. Trump, naturally, saw things differently. “You mean when they had the camera on me? I thought it was very good,” he later told reporters with his trademark self-delusion. “It was, I think, mostly cheers. It was loud and it was very enthusiastic.”Except, outside MSG, New Yorkers were already in a mood, giving the President, a former NewYorker himself before he decamped to Florida, a sonic middle finger. Trump’s appearance had triggered a Secret Service operation that transformed Midtown Manhattan into a DMZ. Streets were closed, barricades clattered down, and fans had to navigate security checkpoints that made getting into MSG feel like crossing the southern border. The disruptions were significant enough for the Knicks to cancel their outdoor watch party near MSG, leaving thousands of fans wondering how a basketball game had suddenly become a government exercise in crowd control. “Imagine shutting down half of Manhattan just to get booed.” one X user wrote. Another quipped: “The Knicks finally made the NBA Finals after almost a quarter century and New York still found something else to yell about.”Conservative media outlets and Trump supporters quickly moved into damage-control mode, performing mental callisthenics that became almost as entertaining as the original footage. While Fox and their friends argued the boos were mixed with cheers, others suggested tv microphones exaggerated the negative reaction, while one commentator claimed that any reaction, even a negative one, showed Trump’s continuing political relevance.Hovering over the spectacle was New York’s newly elected mayor, Zohran Mamdani, whose own rise has become one of the biggest political stories in America. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who shocked the political establishment with his victory – and he could well be joined by Nithya Raman in Los Angeles come November – attended the game but made clear he had little interest in sharing the spotlight with Trump. He hung out with hoi polloi and blended with the orange-and-blue army below the skybox where Trump chowed down french fries with his granddaughter Kai, his man for all seasons Steve Witkoff, and Knicks owner James Dolon.According to some trolls, Trump even managed to nod off in the middle of a raucous game — in a city that never sleeps. If Trump came to watch the Knicks make history, he succeeded — just not in the way he intended. The crowd booed. The city snarled. The Knicks lost for the first time in 13 games.And somewhere across the five boroughs, thousands of New Yorkers reached the same conclusion: maybe for Game 4, Mr President should watch from Mar-a-Lago.
