Why New Yorkers ‘Thunderously Booed’ Trump at Knicks-Spurs Game

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

The New York Times reports the New York crowd booed Trump more than they booed the Spurs when they took the floor. Trump was also loudly booed at watch parties in the city. After the game, Trump downplayed the incident.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It was, I think, mostly cheers. It was — it was loud, and it was very enthusiastic.

AMY GOODMAN: Dave Zirin, Can you talk about what happened last night?

DAVE ZIRIN: Donald Trump absolutely ruined the Knicks’ moment last night. I believe he is the reason why they lost. The game lasted about half an hour to 45 minutes longer than a usual game. It was an absolute slog. You mentioned the two- to three-hour wait to get in there, the TSA-style screenings to get into the game. It definitely had an effect on things, especially because this was supposed to be a day about the Knicks. It was supposed to be a celebration of New York. And instead it was about one authoritarian, malignant narcissist. I mean, it’s actually not a good thing that there were more boos for Trump than the Spurs, because it shouldn’t have been about Trump at all. We shouldn’t even be talking about him right now.

And I got to say something about the boos, because I was at a watch party in Brooklyn. The boos were cacophonous.

AMY GOODMAN: Where?

DAVE ZIRIN: At a bar called Chilo’s in Bed-Stuy.

AMY GOODMAN: Which you just took over.

DAVE ZIRIN: Which I just took over. We’re turning it into a place for the people, a dive bar for the people. And we had an amazing event. The boos were out into the streets. And we weren’t the only bar where you could hear it. You could choose where to hear the boos.

And to me, that was important, because it was a reminder that New York City’s relationship to Donald Trump isn’t just about contemporary politics or the last three election cycles. It’s about a 50-year abusive relationship that this city has had with this man, from his refusal to rent to people of color in the ’70s to him whipping up racist violence due to the Central Park Exonerated Five case, to his desire to, quote-unquote, “develop” our parks with his tacky buildings. This city does not like this man, and we’ve been warning the country about him for, frankly, decades. And maybe last night was the most powerful audio and visual representation of that relationship.

I think, for the Knicks — and I know this a little bit from trying to talk to people on the team — there was a bit of a resentment, because this was supposed to be a night about them, about their hard work. They’re coming in off a near-record 13-game winning streak in the playoffs. It was — it’s been the equivalent for the city of going to 13 movies and having them all be awesome. And it created a great vibe in the city. You walk in the city, it’s orange and black everywhere — I’m sorry, orange and blue everywhere, the royal blue wherever you see. And it’s been — it was supposed to be the beautiful culmination. It was the first home game in an NBA Finals for the Knicks since 1999 and their chance to go up three to nothing, which would effectively have ensured them the championship for the first time in 53 years, longer than I’ve been on this Earth. And this is the team of my youth. This is the team of my heart.

So, to see it become about Donald Trump was certainly upsetting for fans, not just the people in the well-heeled tens of thousands of dollars seats in the stadium, but the watch parties, the bars. Everybody who’s put their heart and soul into this team were basically slapped in the face by Donald Trump.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ:  I wanted to ask you about also another issue with the Trump administration, which is the World Cup, the treatment of the Trump administration to some of the participants in the World Cup, the exclusion — the Iranian team forced to fly in and fly out of the country from Mexico, when they’re going to be playing games on the same day, and also the recent exclusion of a referee chosen by FIFA from Somalia who was denied entry into the United States.

DAVE ZIRIN: Yeah, I’ll just say I’ve been covering the World Cup in person, and at times, when it’s been in authoritarian countries, remotely, and this is the first World Cup that I would ever describe as joyless. It’s always been a celebration, a party, no matter what country that has hosted it, whether a liberal democracy or an authoritarian regime. But this is the first time that travel warnings are being issued to fans coming here. Even warnings are being issued to people who live in the United States by immigration groups because of the threats of ICE being at the stadiums. There’s a joylessness. It’s supposed to be the party that unites the world. And like the Knicks game last night, this looks to be something that Trump is using his reverse Midas touch to ruin.

AMY GOODMAN: And one more question on what happened last night, that image of President Trump in Jame’s Dolan’s box. And for a global audience who doesn’t know about the significance of the man who owns both Madison Square Garden and the Knicks?

DAVE ZIRIN: Yeah, James Dolan is someone who made his money the old-fashioned way: He inherited it. That’s one of his commonalities with Donald Trump. They have a very close relationship, going back decades. Dolan and his son were both married at Mar-a-Lago. Dolan has given Trump untold amounts of money for his political campaigns. Dolan wants to lead a push to rename Penn Station, over which he has a lot of influence because of the presence of Madison Square Garden there. He wants to rename Penn Station after Donald Trump. They have had meetings about that.

But that’s not all they share. They share accusations of sexual assault and sexual battery and having unsafe work environments for women. That’s something Dolan has paid a price for. Racism allegations, of course, plague both men, although calling them allegations for Donald Trump is a stretch, to say the least. And as I said, both children of wealth. So they have a tremendous amount of commonalities, but, basically, they’re the commonality that exists when you have — I don’t know how else to put it, but — two rich jerks who were born on third base and act like they hit a triple.

AMY GOODMAN: And Dolan developing Madison Square Garden, the deals that have to be made, and this is with Trump?

DAVE ZIRIN: This is with Trump. The idea is to move Madison Square Garden to be actually on top of Penn Station and to rename Penn Station after Donald Trump. That’s the big plan. They have had meetings about this. This is not rumor. This is what Trump wants: people coming into Trump Station. And that’s the authoritarian playbook if there ever was one. He needs to name as many things as possible after him now, because after he leaves, like with the Trump Kennedy Center, people are going to want to take those names down.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you, Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation magazine, host of the Edge of Sports podcast. And we’re going to be looking more at the World Cup in the coming days here on Democracy Now!