James Dolan went on WFAN and accepted a White House invitation from Donald Trump on behalf of a locker room he didn’t bother to consult, and four days after the championship parade, Jalen Brunson politely blew the whole thing up.
“We haven’t discussed it,” Brunson told reporters on Friday. “But as a team, we’ll discuss it, and we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” That’s Brunson being diplomatic. What he’s actually saying is: nobody asked us. Dolan took it upon himself to accept on behalf of players he doesn’t speak for, then announced it on WFAN. His exact words: “We just did receive an invitation from the White House, which we accepted. I’ve known him for 30 years and I’m very proud to bring the team to the White House.” Now the Finals MVP is out here doing damage control four days after the parade. This is the most Dolan thing that has ever happened.
If you want to understand why this matters beyond a scheduling disagreement, Josh Hart is a useful place to start. Hart has spent the entire championship run saying exactly what is on his mind:
https://x.com/espn/status/2068144114843980054
On Election Night 2020, Hart posted on X: “YESSIR!!!! GET TRUMP’S DUMBA** OUT THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!” That tweet resurfaced within hours of Dolan’s announcement. This isn’t a six-year-old joke being unfairly dredged up — it’s context for what Dolan apparently missed when he told the world he was bringing his team to visit his old friend of three decades.
I’ve watched Dolan try to control what happens at MSG for years: the banned fans, the press conference chaos, the revolving front-office door. But accepting a White House invitation before asking a single player is a different category of overreach. This is about deciding for 15 men whether they want to become the first NBA champions to visit Trump’s White House in either of his terms. No team did it during Trump 1.0. The Knicks, who won the title for the first time in 53 years, are now being volunteered for that distinction by a man who had Trump sitting courtside as his personal guest in Game 3, the only game the Knicks lost in the series, while the crowd booed. For more on this and the rest of the league, follow our NBA coverage.
Brunson is not going to start a war over this publicly, and neither is Hart. But the positions are now on record, and Dolan put them there. Nobody asked the champions what they wanted to do with their championship.
