President Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City plan to separately attend Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals in New York on Monday, and each is expected to take a seat that conforms to his preferred political image.
There are no known plans for the two to meet at Madison Square Garden, and a chance encounter seems unlikely.
“I will be in a very different section,” the mayor said Thursday, during an unrelated news conference.
Mr. Trump, who has trumpeted his wealth for most of his public life and has a long history with the Garden as both audience member and main attraction, is expected to be in a suite, should he attend, a person familiar with the plans said. Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who strives to be seen as one of the people, is expected to have a comparatively inferior seat, closer to the rafters than celebrity row.
Mr. Mamdani’s spokesman, Joe Calvello, said the mayor was paying his own way. It was not clear if the president was paying for his ticket; he said last week that the Knicks owner, James Dolan, had invited him to the finals. Tickets are going for thousands of dollars apiece on the secondary market.
The White House has not confirmed the president’s attendance yet, and officials declined to comment. But last week, Mr. Trump suggested he planned to attend.
“I think I’ll be going to one of the games, yeah,” he said, adding, “I think I’ll be going.”
The president is famously volatile, and contending with a host of pressing problems domestically and internationally. But if he does attend, his and the mayor’s presence are certain to complicate security arrangements at Madison Square Garden, known as the world’s most famous arena and the soon-to-be center of the basketball universe.
The pivotal Monday game will be the Knicks’ first at their home court since the Eastern Conference finals. They are in the midst of a 12-game winning streak, having defeated the San Antonio Spurs in a nail-biter of a Game 1 on Wednesday evening. Game 2 is on Friday in San Antonio.
The worst-case scenario for the Knicks on Monday is that they return home having split those two games; tensions and excitement among a feral fan base would be running high even without the presence of two polarizing political figures.
Though Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Trump occupy opposite ends of the American political spectrum, the two have forged an unusually amicable relationship and exchange texts. If they were to meet at the Monday game, it would be the first known get-together since the mayor traveled to the White House in February to pitch the president on redeveloping a vast rail yard controlled by Amtrak in Queens.
When asked about the political peculiarity of that relationship, Mr. Mamdani has said it has led to concrete wins for New Yorkers. Not all New York Democrats agree.
During a debate hosted by Spectrum News NY1 on Wednesday night, Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president running for Congress, condemned Mr. Mamdani for visiting the White House.
“This guy is terrorizing our neighbors, he is committing crimes — war crimes — he is somebody that we should be getting ready to impeach,” said Mr. Reynoso, who is facing Claire Valdez, an assemblywoman endorsed by the mayor.
Mr. Mamdani responded to those remarks on Thursday: “I’ll leave it to the borough president to explain why he would prefer a New Yorker continue to be unjustly detained by ICE, than I meet with the president in the Oval Office to secure their release.” The mayor was referring to Elmina Aghayeva, then a Columbia University senior from Azerbaijan, who was released by the Homeland Security Department after Mr. Mamdani pleaded her case to Mr. Trump.
Mr. Mamdani had also asked Mr. Trump to terminate immigration proceedings against four other noncitizens from the New York City area who have been targeted by the Trump Administration. The White House did not accede to that request.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
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