{"id":694973,"date":"2026-10-29T12:43:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T12:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=694973"},"modified":"2026-10-29T12:43:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T12:43:28","slug":"stephen-a-smith-blames-trump-friendly-knicks-owner-for-teams-rocky-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=694973","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A Smith blames Trump-friendly Knicks owner for team\u2019s rocky start"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Stephen A. Smith believes politics may be at the root of a rocky start for the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n

The NBA team lost its first three games before beating the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday after ending its longtime championship drought last summer.<\/p>\n

Knicks owner James Dolan had famously invited his friend, President Donald Trump, to Game 3 of the NBA Finals and had said he\u2019d accepted a team invite to the White House.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, not all the players are on board with a White House trip, and it\u2019s reportedly causing friction behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\n

James Dolan is reportedly upset with Knicks players because they don\u2019t want to visit the White House, per @stephenasmith https:\/\/t.co\/SRlJD8JpKT<\/p>\n

\u2014 NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThis is what I\u2019ve been hearing and I\u2019m gonna say it,\u201d Smith said. \u201cDon\u2019t know how much truth there is to it because I haven\u2019t heard from the players directly, but one of the things that people have been talking around about around New York City, and around Madison Square Garden, is that the climate was a little bit different.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been a little bit stressed because the owner, James Dolan, has an attitude with players because they don\u2019t wanna go to the White House,\u201d he continued before calling Dolan a \u201cwalking embodiment of petulance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis man is as petty as they come,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe owner James Dolan has an attitude with players because they don\u2019t want to go to the White House\u201d \u2013 Stephen A. Smith on what he\u2019s hearing about the New York Knicks https:\/\/t.co\/ufJtKvqPjK<\/p>\n

\u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 28, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Leftists are, of course, salivating over the Knicks players\u2019 reported hesitation to visit the White House and Trump-friendly Dolan is in the media crosshairs.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cJust about every single Knicks development since they won the title last June \u2014 remember that? They won the title? It was incredibly awesome! \u2014 has been negative. And it has all been Jim Dolan\u2019s fault. Of course it has,\u201d writes Will Leitch.<\/p>\n

One of the primary reasons team president Leon Rose and the rest of the Knicks brass were able to build the championship roster they did was that, for the first time really since he took over ownership of the team, Dolan stayed out of things.<\/p>\n

Inevitably, that era has come to an end, writes Leitch. We saw the beginning of its demise during and after the Finals: There was Dolan\u2019s vibes-destroying invitation to President Trump to attend game three; his stupid fight with the mayor over watch parties outside MSG; his relentless megalomania at both the trophy presentation and the parade. All of that was essentially harmless, though \u2014 Dolan was always going to put himself front and center once the Knicks finally broke through and act like their success was a testament to his leadership rather than a direct refutation of it.<\/p>\n

Read more: https:\/\/t.co\/yAdkEyNVqu<\/p>\n

\u2014 New York Magazine (@NYMag) October 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Point guard Jalen Brunson, however, said the team\u2019s decision to visit the White House was still up in the air.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen A. Smith believes politics may be at the root of a rocky start for the New York Knicks. The NBA team lost its first three games before beating the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday after ending its longtime championship drought last summer. Knicks owner James Dolan had famously invited his friend, President Donald Trump, to… Continue reading Stephen A Smith blames Trump-friendly Knicks owner for team\u2019s rocky start<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-694973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=694973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=694973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=694973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=694973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}