If it seemed at all strange to see Mayor Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo sitting courtside at a Knicks game like Ben Stiller and Chris Rock, think how much stranger it was to see Zohran Mamdani’s name emblazoned in the team’s iconic logo.
As the Knicks’ promising season kicked off last week, carrying the hopes of a fan base already mired in football failure, there was Mamdani jumping with both feet on the orange-and-blue bandwagon.
“This is our year,” a deep-voiced announcer said in a commercial for the Democratic nominee for mayor that aired during the Knicks home opening win against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“We’ve struggled. We’ve had dreams dashed and hearts broken. But things can be different. Hope is back. New York, our time has come.”
Despite the timing, and gritty hoops footage from playground courts, there is not a soul alive who has ever bounced a basketball who thinks Mamdani’s self-serving ad was any kind of homage to the Knicks.
The Queens assemblyman was clearly talking about his surprising, upstart campaign.
That’s fine. That’s what campaign ads are supposed to do.
But Mamdani crossed the line — a flagrant foul, some might say — when his ad people stretched his name across the logo spot where “New York” and “Knicks” are supposed to be.
And the Knicks aren’t having it. They didn’t take any guff from the Boston Celtics last season in the playoffs.
They’re certainly not taking any from him.
”The NY Knicks have sent NYC Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a cease-and-desist letter for using the NY Knicks logo to promote his candidacy,” the team said in a statement.
“The Knicks want to make it clear that we do not endorse Mr. Mamdani for Mayor, and we object to his use of our copyrighted logo. We will pursue all legal remedies to enforce our rights.”
Knicks owner James Dolan has gone one-on-one with people for less. In 2022, the vindictive owner banned a lawyer from attending a Mariah Carey concert at Madison Square Garden because she represented a client who was suing him, according to a lawsuit.
If voters are unable to keep Mamdani out of City Hall, maybe Dolan can at least keep him out of the Garden.
The Garden welcome mat appeared to be out for Cuomo, Mamdani’s closest rival. After debating Mamdani and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa on Wednesday night, Cuomo picked up a coveted endorsement from Adams, the outgoing mayor, with whom he caught a game from seats that were, as Jay-Z would say, “close enough to trip a referee.”
To outsiders, it probably felt like going to a Mets game with a bunch of Yankee fans.
Meanwhile, Mamdani, who already beat Cuomo in the city’s Democratic primary, has received endorsements from Gov. Hochul and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Cuomo is running as an independent. Adams, who was also running as an independent, suspended his campaign last month.
Sliwa is resisting calls from Democrats and members of his own party to step aside and give Cuomo a boost.
The same debate ended on a light note, with each candidate being asked to choose between the Mets and the Knicks if both teams were, in some weird, debate-question-only hypothetical scheduling twist, playing for a championship on the same night.
Sliwa, a Yankees fan, chose the Knicks. Cuomo struggled with the softball, saying he would do “half and half,” an answer that got under Mamdani’s skin.
“See, that’s what New Yorkers are sick of,” Mamdani said. “I’d be there for the Knicks.”
Solid answer. But don’t try going to the Garden with that “Zohran” logo Knicks hat.
You might get run out of the building.
