Director Spike Lee, an avid New York Knicks fan, wants the basketball team to reject a meeting with President Trump at the White House after they won the NBA Finals in June.
It’s customary for American sports teams to visit the White House after winning a league championship, but Lee wants his beloved Knicks to skip the trip, according to an interview with Variety published Tuesday.
When told by interviewer Marlow Stern that James Dolan, the team’s owner, is trying to “force” a visit with Mr. Trump, Lee responded, “He can’t force them.”
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“It’s been years since the last NBA team has gone,” Lee added. “They’re not going. I hope they don’t go.”
The last NBA team to visit the White House was the Boston Celtics in November 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
With Mr. Trump back in the White House by 2025, the champion Oklahoma City Thunder turned down a visit due to a “timing issue.”
Lee agreed with Stern that the president “ruined [the Knicks’] mojo” when he visited Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the finals. The Knicks lost that night to the San Antonio Spurs, then won the series in five games.
“That was not just an accident,” Lee said of the Knicks’ Game 3 loss.
The Knicks’ title was their first since 1973.
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