Sports

Azelia Banks Wants Trump Banned From MSG for Game 3 of NBA Finals

She thinks if the president shows up, the Knicks will lose.

(L-R) Azealia Banks and Donald Trump.
Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Azealia Banks has made a case for why she doesn't want President Donald Trump to attend the next New York Knicks NBA Finals game.

Taking to X on Saturday (June 6), the rapper brought up Trump's suggestion to cancel musical performances at the Great American State fair celebration of the United States' 250th birthday.

"Can somebody pretty please prevent Trump from going to the Knicks Game?" she wrote. "You don’t get to cancel America's birthday party, then come to the Knicks game and get booed and ruin the fun."

"We will lose if he comes," she added. "PLEASE BAN HIM."

Banks' plea comes days after President Trump announced that he accepted an invitation from Knicks owner James Dolan to come to the third game in the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs series, which is set to take place on Monday (June 8).

"The answer is yes," Trump said while speaking at the Oval Office (per ABC News). "[Dolan] has invited me, and I'm going. I'll be there. It could be Monday. Maybe I'll do both [Game 3 and Game 4]."

He added: "[The Knicks] find a way to do it. They're really great, a great team. I'm happy for Jim [Dolan] because Jim has really been fighting hard to produce such a team."

With the president coming, security measures for attendees at the games will look much different. According to CBS News, hundreds of Secret Service officers and agents will be deployed on Monday, with thousands of New York Police Department officials.

There's also set to be a hard closure around the entirety of Madison Square Garden, where there’ll be no pedestrian travel, vehicle access, or watch parties in the secured area.

"It's the first president who’s ever come in to go to a basketball playoff game. So you can imagine the Garden is gonna have 50,000 fans, now you've got a presidential motorcade coming in, streets sealed off," said former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Rich Esposito to CBS New York.

President Trump will be the first active president to go to an NBA game since former President Barack Obama attended the season opener between the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015.

NYC Major Zohran Mamdani is also preparing to go to Game 3 of the NBA finals, but will "be in a very different section of the stadium" from the president, based on what he’s told reporters.

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