How do you do, fellow Knicks fans?
Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani donned crisp new Knicks merch and tried to act like an average hoops fan in the “nosebleed” seats at Madison Square Garden Sunday — a transparent retort to Andrew Cuomo’s photo-op last month from high-end courtside seats.
Mamdani was joined by a podcaster and the New York Times, which called the appearance “low-key” even as the candidate’s social media posts went viral.
Mamdani has admitted he’s into soccer and cricket, not hoops, and hadn’t posted about the hometown Knicks until he launched his mayoral campaign earlier this year.
According to some Empire State pols and pundits, he’s not fooling anyone.
“Mamdani’s polar bear plunge was a far more effective populist stunt than taking in a Knicks’ game — even from the cheap seats,” said Ken Frydman, a Democratic political operative and longtime police union advisor. “It was shrewd of the Mamdani camp to invite The Times to the game.”
Mamdani continues to lead in the polls heading into Election Day, but Cuomo, a former governor running as an independent after losing the Democrat primary, has been gaining ground.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, the GOP candidate, is running third.
Following the second and final mayoral debate on Oct. 22, Cuomo dashed off to MSG to join Mayor Eric Adams courtside, elite seats typically reserved for A-listers.
“Corruption goes courtside,” Mamdani quipped on X.
But Sunday, Mamdani used the Garden as a backdrop for is own shameless political stunt, sitting in the “blue seats” high atop the arena with comedian The Kid Mero in a staged “man of the people” moment.
The comedian joked that Mamdani looked like “one of my Dominican cousins,” the New York Times said.
He wore a jersey with the “Experience Abu Dhabi” patch that the team only adopted last year.
While some at the game didn’t recognize him, Mamdani tried to cash in on the Knicks’ popularity, dancing with the crowd to the Backstreet Boys 1999 tune, “I Want It That Way,” and shaking hands with fans.
“The exhilaration of the last few days of the campaign is like little else, but so is the anxiety,” he said, according to the Times. “Somebody described it to me once like playing tennis but not being able to see the score until the last minute.”
The clip later showed Mamdani with fans outside the Garden chanting “Let’s go Knicks” — even though he had never mentioned the Knicks online before he launched his mayoral campaign.
But in April, he showed up outside MSG with a mic to interview New Yorkers.
On April 24 he ended a campaign post on X with, “Let’s go Knicks,” followed by a May 9 post announcing two new campaign ads to air during the Knicks NBA playoff run, ending with, “Go Knicks.”
Sunday’s game was just the latest display of Mamdani’s apparent newfound fandom.
Earlier in the day, he was also rubbing elbows with Gov. Kathy Hochul at Murphy’s Bar in Astoria and cheering on the Buffalo Bills — seemingly unaware that most Big Apple NFL fans bleed either Giants’ blue or Jets’ green.
“We didn’t smash any tables,” Mamdani posted. “We didn’t eat a garbage plate. But you better believe the Bills got that W today.”
Garbage plates are a staple in Rochester, not Buffalo.
“Bills fans would sooner watch a game with Brittany and Jackson Mahomes than with Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani,” Erie County GOP Chairman Michael Kracker said, referring to the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and his wife. “I wonder if the governor could hear the ‘tax the rich’ chants this time?”
At a Mamdani rally last week, Hochul said she thought the crowd was chanting “Let’s go Bills” — unaware they weren’t cheering for the upstate team, but were actually yelling, “Tax the Rich.”
Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick
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