The New York Knicks have accepted an invitation to visit the White House after winning the franchise’s first NBA championship since 1973, owner James Dolan said Wednesday.
They will be the first NBA champions to visit the White House during a Trump administration.
“We just did receive an invitation from the White House which we accepted. We still have to figure out the details,” said Dolan, who described President Donald Trump as a friend.
Dolan invited the president to attend a Finals game at Madison Square Garden.
“I’m very proud to bring the team to the White House,” he said.
Dolan praised Knicks President Leon Rose for constructing the roster almost entirely through trades.
“Leon was really the No. 1 agent in basketball,” Dolan said of Rose’s time before joining the Knicks. “The one all the teams related, all the players related to, all the other agents related to. So what better guy to help assemble a team?”
No starters on the championship roster were Knicks draft picks, he confirmed, expressing a strong desire to keep the core together for next year.
“If we could bring back the whole team, exactly as it is, why wouldn’t you?” he said. “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to.”
Dolan said the championship was satisfying, and referred to a motivational speech he gave the team in April, before their playoff run.
“There was definitely a sense of relief,” he said. “The speech really did embody how I feel about the team, and about the whole season. And I knew that we could win, right? There was no doubt in my mind that we could win.”
He said the championship created a rare moment of unity across New York.
“To have something like the Knicks come along where for once there’s one thing that everybody can be happy about—we haven’t had that as New Yorkers in a long time.”
Jose Alvarado, a point guard on the team, expressed an interest in attending the White House ceremony.
In Trump's first term, the Golden State Warriors declined to visit the White House after they won the title in 2017 and 2018, and the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers declined the next two years. Last year, the Oklahoma City Thunder did the same.