All-Star San Antonio Spurs point guard De’Aaron Fox is fed up with the added security measures players—and fans—need to go through ahead of President Donald Trump’s NBA Finals arrival.
Fox, 28, who won the NBA’s inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award in 2023, complained that Trump’s impending presence at Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on Monday has made his pregame routine more difficult.
“I think the president being here just makes it inconvenient on everybody else,” he said on Monday during a pregame shootaround. “We’ve got more, obviously more, security. We’ve got to send stuff early. I think our buses are a little earlier, so that’s that.”
The reported noted that the Secret Service was so strict that they confiscated his chapstick lid.
“The less stuff you can bring, the better,” Fox said, laughing. “Obviously, we’re getting screened like it’s TSA. It’s a little inconvenient for the people that’s got to play, but it is what it is.”
“It’s New York, so regardless of who’s here, you know it’s gonna be loud, it’s gonna be rowdy,” he said. “You know when you come here, and you go against this team, regardless of when they’re good or if they’re not, it’s gonna be a building that comes ready to support the team.”
Trump, 79, who skipped his eldest son’s wedding over Memorial Day weekend because of the still-ongoing Iran War, has confirmed his plans to attend the first of two back-to-back Knicks home games at MSG after receiving an invitation from team owner James Dolan.
In response, the Knicks announced the Secret Service will be enforcing a “strict no-bag policy” while encouraging fans to “make every effort to limit personal items to an absolute minimum.” The Secret Service will be performing “TSA-style” screenings and encouraging fans to show up at least two hours before tip-off, echoing when Trump deployed ICE agents in airports and extended traveler wait times for hours.
New York Knicks Hall of Famer Bill Bradley sent out a warning to Trump ahead of his team’s potential first championship in 53 years.
“It’s a free country… but to me, he’s not going to be the center of attention. The center of attention will be the Knicks,“ Bradley, 82, who won the Knicks last to championships in 1970 and 1973, and was a Democratic New Jersey Senator, said. ”Quite frankly… I don’t give a s--t what he does. What I care about is what the team does.”
Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, a diehard Knicks fan, told the president to stay away as well.
“I don’t want him there,” Smith, 58, said bluntly. “It has everything to do with him disrupting and contributing at the same time to the chaos that’s going to be existing at Madison Square Garden.”
Knicks fans are also furious with Trump—who hosted an infamous campaign rally at MSG in 2024—for canceling a watch party outside of the iconic sports arena. It would’ve been the first home Finals game watch party since the team last faced the Spurs in 1999—a series the Knicks lost in 5 games.
“It doesn’t matter who you voted for,” a Knicks fan account wrote. “Banning the great vibes outside MSG before, during & after games, especially on a night the Knicks play their first NBA Finals Home Game in 27 years, objectively sucks.”
Trump told fans who couldn’t afford an MSG ticket to “watch it on television.”
“That’s the way life goes,” he mused.
