Stephen A Smith has suggested there is a growing rift between New York Knicks stars and the team’s billionaire owner James Dolan over their potential trip to visit Donald Trump at the White House.
The president traditionally welcomes sporting champions across America to the White House but that has not always been the case for NBA teams under Trump. No team went during his first term or after he was elected again in 2024.
But Trump and Dolan are close and sat together when Trump attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden.
Dolan later indicated after the Knicks won the championship in June that an offer to visit the White House would be accepted.
Teams often try to arrange their visit when they are in Washington to play the Wizards. The Knicks are scheduled for those games on December 18 and March 16.
But, while acknowledging he doesn’t know ‘how much truth’ there is to the rumors, Smith revealed that Knicks stars don’t want to visit Trump and that position has angered Dolan.
Stephen A Smith suggested there is a growing rift between Knicks stars and the team’s owner James Dolan over their potential trip to visit Donald Trump at the White House
Trump and Dolan are close and sat together when Trump attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals
‘One of the things people have been talking about around New York City and Madison Square Garden is that the climate is different,’ Smith said on First Take on Wednesday.
‘People have been a little bit stressed because the owner, James Dolan, has an attitude with players because they don’t want to go to the White House.
‘I don’t know whether this is true or not, but I’ll believe anything when it comes to James Dolan because he is a walking embodiment of petulance. This man is as petty as they come.
‘He’s petty enough to have an attitude because he’s tight with Trump and wants to go to the White House but some of the players, if not most of them, might not want to go.’
Speaking during preseason, Knicks coach Mike Brown was asked if there had been a decision made about a White House visit.
‘No, it’s still something that our guys, or the organization, is internally discussing and, you know, whatever we decide to do, we’ll all do together,’ Brown said.
The Boston Celtics made the first trip by a champion in 1963, and President Barack Obama, who is a basketball fan, hosted the winner every year he was in office.
But Trump has feuded with some NBA players, saying during the 2018 NBA Finals that he wouldn’t invite whichever team won, after Golden State’s Stephen Curry and LeBron James, then with the Cleveland Cavaliers, said their teams had no interest in a visit.
Smith revealed that Knicks stars don’t want to visit Trump and that position has angered Dolan
The 2025 champion Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t visit the White House last season, saying the timing did not work out.
Knicks stars are probably more concerned with matters on the court after they finally won their first game of the season on Tuesday night by beating the previously undefeated Detroit Pistons 111-97.
The Knicks opened the season with as many losses in three games as they had in 19 games during the playoffs. They went 16-3 and set a record for the largest point differential by a team in a postseason.
They returned this season with losses to Philadelphia, Boston and Orlando, and with another loss Tuesday would have joined the 1969-70 Celtics as the only reigning champions to lose their first four games.
Down by 13 points after one quarter, they outscored the Pistons 63-25 across the next two, putting the kind of crooked numbers on the scoreboard they did repeatedly during their march to the NBA championship.
‘We had more good moments in this game in totality than we did the first three games and that´s why we got the win,’ Brown said.
