Vegas inches closer to a 2-0 series lead on the Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Vegas Golden Knights lead the Carolina Hurricanes 2-0 after two periods of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. They’re halfway to their second consecutive victory in the series after Brett Howden scored twice to pad his playoff-leading total to 13 goals. Vegas lost key defensive defenseman Brayden McNabb just past the midway point of the first period. McNabb took a face to the nose off a slap shot from Nikolaj Ehlers, dropped to the ice, skated immediately off the ice and did not return after intermission. Game 3 is Saturday in Las Vegas.

NBA bans two fans for life after one runs onto court during Game 1, attempts selfie with Wemby

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The NBA banned two people for life from its arenas after one of them was arrested after running onto the court during Game 1 of the NBA Finals and appearing to take a selfie next to Victor Wembanyama. The San Antonio Spurs star didn’t appear bothered by the incident, which occurred in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s game between the Spurs and Knicks. The NBA didn’t disclose what role the second person played in that incident. Another incident involving fan behavior occurred in the final minute, when New York guard Jalen Brunson appeared to be upset by something said to him by a patron in a courtside seat. Commissioner Adam Silver says the league is looking into what was said to Brunson.

New York City is in a Knicks frenzy for its beloved team’s 1st NBA Finals in 27 years

NEW YORK (AP) — From Bay Ridge to the Bronx and beyond, the Big Apple has gone nuts for the New York Knicks making their first NBA Finals appearance in 27 years. It’s evident in the soaring ticket prices to fans filling Madison Square Garden with thousands more lining the streets outside to watch the Knicks’ 105-95 victory at San Antonio in Game 1 of the series. Bars in Brooklyn overflowed and “Knicks in Four” chants erupted shortly after midnight following the win. Similar scenes were captured at a free watch party in Central Park, and across the five boroughs.

Trump says he will attend NBA Finals game in New York to root for his hometown Knicks

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is planning to attend an NBA Finals game in New York next week to root for his hometown Knicks. The president announced Thursday that he’s accepting an invitation from Knicks owner James Dolan. The president said he’s eyeing a visit Monday for Game 3. An avid sports fan and native New Yorker, Trump said he watched some of the Knicks’ Game 1 win over the San Antonio Spurs. He called the Knicks “dominant.” The NBA believes Trump would be the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.

Fleetwood part of 4-way tie for the lead at Memorial in a tough opening round for Scheffler

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Scottie Scheffler has some work to do if he wants to make it three in a row at the Memorial. The wind played tricks on him at Muirfield Village and led to a 73. That leaves him six shots behind a four-way share of the lead. Tommy Fleetwood, Wyndham Clark, U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun and Ryan Gerard were at 67. Only seven players broke 70 and a total of 22 players broke par. Gerard had only five pars in his wild round. Scheffler was particularly frustrated when the wind shifted on the 16th and he went in the water.

FIFA prohibits fans from bringing refillable water bottles into World Cup stadiums

CORAL GABLES, Fla (AP) — FIFA has made a late change of policy to bar World Cup fans from bringing refillable water bottles into the tournament’s 16 stadiums across North America. Some venues have limited or no shade from the sun. The “Stadium Code of Conduct” update was criticized by an England fans group. Free Lions says FIFA gave assurances on carrying empty plastic bottles to fill with freely available water at a tournament where heat and extreme weather are expected. FIFA says it’s “to prevent risk and injury to players and attendees” by bottles being thrown. FIFA says water prices will be consistent with other events at stadiums.

AP exclusive: Iran players describe how the war affects their World Cup preparations

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — Iran is heading to the World Cup amid tensions with the main host nation, creating a unique situation in tournament history. Two Iranian players shared their struggles to stay focused on soccer. Saeid Ezatolahi, a 29-year-old midfielder, said it’s challenging to manage the political situation while preparing for his third World Cup. The team has been training in Turkey and plans to move to Tijuana, Mexico, due to visa issues. Mohammad Ghorbani, attending his first World Cup, emphasized the importance of playing for their people. He said the team aims to bring joy and pride to Iranians.

Packers’ Christian Watson agrees to four-year, $110.5 million extension, AP source says

The Green Bay Packers have continued their offseason objective of reaching long-term deals with their top receivers by signing Christian Watson to an extension. The Packers announced Thursday they had signed Watson to an extension without disclosing terms. But a person with knowledge of the contract told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity that the 27-year-old receiver is getting a four-year, $110.5 million extension through 2030 with a $31 million signing bonus. Packers receiver Jayden Reed agreed in April to a three-year extension that includes $50.25 million in new money and $20 million guaranteed.

George Pickens isn’t with Cowboys for voluntary work as Schottenheimer says communication is good

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — George Pickens isn’t with the Dallas Cowboys during the opening week of voluntary offseason practices, while coach Brian Schottenheimer says the receiver is “taking care of his business” and their communication has been good. Pickens signed his $27.3 million franchise tag a little more than a month ago but has stayed away from the team. The Pro Bowler isn’t required to show up until mandatory minicamp June 16-18. Pickens waited two months before signing the one-year contract that’s worth three times what the 25-year-old earned on his four-year rookie contract.

How long should college athletes play? NCAA is about to give a new answer to that age-old question

The NCAA is on the cusp of extending Division I athlete eligibility from four years of competition to five and essentially setting an age limit. It should be remembered that the issue of who can play and for how long has been a point of contention in college sports from the beginning. Walter Camp is known as the ‘Father of Football’ and was in his seventh season playing for Yale when an injury ended his career in 1882. Amos Alonzo Stagg was 27 when he played his fifth season in 1889. The latest rule change would combat aging rosters.

SAN ANTONIO — Jalen Brunson displayed plenty of grit in the New York Knicks’ Game 1 victory in the NBA Finals, but second on the Most Valuable list in the early stages of the series is do-it-all veteran Josh Hart.

The 6-foot-5 Hart only scored three points and missed four of his five shots. But he collected 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals in the 105-95 victory over the host San Antonio Spurs, and he’s hungry for more as the Knicks come back for seconds in Game 2 on Friday night.

The 31-year-old Hart had three more rebounds than anyone on the floor, which included 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs.

“His energy is just relentless, it doesn’t stop,” Brunson said Thursday of Hart, his former college teammate at Villanova. “I mean, he eats candy all the time. That tells you who he is. He’s a big kid with an absurd amount of energy.”

Hart’s contributions were certainly sweet as New York ran its postseason winning streak to 12, tied for second-longest in NBA history.

Hart averaged 12.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 66 regular-season games. His postseason numbers are 10.9, 9.1 and 4.7, respectively.

Hart, though, only considers the numbers when the topic is victories.

“It takes humility and just a willingness to sacrifice,” Hart said. “We’re in the NBA Finals — there’s millions of people watching. It’s easy to get wrapped up in human nature of wanting to get recognition, wanting to score the ball, wanting to show people what you can do on the biggest stage.

“That’s not everyone’s calling and not everyone’s assignment. I know for me, that’s not really my assignment. It takes a little bit of time to find that humility.”

Knicks coach Mike Brown certainly feels good about having a team-first player like Hart.

“He rebounded the basketball. He was great,” Brown said. “He was great on the weak side defensively. He impacted the game in so many different ways for us. When you look at what he shot from the field, you wouldn’t think that he was probably the most impactful guy on the game last night.”

Brunson was the scoring machine and put up 13 of his 30 points in the final quarter. Brunson also played through injuries — right knee, left ankle — sustained during the first half of the contest.

New York closed Game 1 with an 11-0 run to leave the Spurs bruised and battered on the home floor.

San Antonio was just 6-of-21 from the field and committed five turnovers while being outscored by 10 in the final quarter.

The Spurs are loaded with players who are part of their first NBA Finals, but coach Mitch Johnson insisted youth wasn’t the reason for the shaky play down the stretch.

“Old teams make bad decisions, too, at the end of games,” Johnson said. “It’s looking at a picture, understand if you see that moving forward, whatever that pattern is, whatever led to that situation, if you can recognize it and make a better decision next time or understand maybe where there’s a better opportunity to look for an advantage, we’ll try to help them with that.”

Perhaps the biggest symbol of their defeat was Wembanyama’s 6-of-21 shooting. The Frenchman also committed six turnovers.

He maintained that he didn’t succumb to the pressure of his first game on the ultimate NBA stage. Wembanyama also received a text from legendary director of basketball operations Gregg Popovich about his performance.

“In the big lines, it was that I’ve been bad and I’m better than this,” Wembanyama said of what Popovich’s message entailed.

Wembanyama did contribute 26 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.

One San Antonio player missing in action was De’Aaron Fox, who scored seven points on 3-of-13 shooting and was regularly assigned to defend Brunson.

Fox stated the obvious Thursday — he’s got to shoot better — while also reminding people that Wednesday’s game counts as just one loss.

“We know it’s a long series,” Fox said. “Obviously you want to win every game that you have on your home court, but it’s not the way it happens every day. We try to go in and fix the things we need to fix. Obviously we want a different outcome.”

–Field Level Media

President Donald Trump plans to attend an NBA Finals game — or two — next week in New York at the invitation of Knicks owner James Dolan.

“The answer is yes,” Trump said Thursday of attending the league championship series between the Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. “(Dolan) has invited me, and I’m going. I’ll be there. It could be Monday (for Game 3). Maybe I’ll do both (with Game 4 on Wednesday).”

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the president’s attendance would require extra security at Madison Square Garden but would not otherwise distract from the event.

“I am sure there will be announcements about coming early,” Silver said, “but I think fans are very understanding of that. They recognize that it adds to the bigness of the event.”

Trump, who has attended other major sporting events, would be the first sitting president to attend the NBA Finals. The last sitting president to attend a regular-season NBA game was Barack Obama in 2015.

“I think sports in particular is something where we can emphasize what we have in common, not what pulls us apart,” Silver said. “It creates a sense of belonging. We’re seeing that in New York and I think President Trump is very much a New Yorker and I’m thrilled that yet another New Yorker wants to participate in the enthusiasm and the joy around this Knick team.”

Dolan had extended the offer for the president to attend Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, Trump said last month, but the Knicks swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in four games to advance to their first NBA Finals since 1999.

New York’s opponent then and now is the Spurs, who won then and are attempting to prevent the Knicks from winning their first league title since 1973.

The Knicks defeated the host Spurs 105-95 on Wednesday for their 12th consecutive victory and can take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series on the road Friday.

“(The Knicks) find a way to do it,” Trump said on Thursday. “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.”

Trump has attended multiple high-profile sporting events, including the Super Bowl, U.S. Open tennis tournament, Ryder Cup and Daytona 500, during his two presidential terms. In November 2024, he was present for a UFC event at Madison Square Garden.

Trump was a longtime New York resident and has other ties to the franchise and Dolan, who also oversees operations of the stadium and the NHL’s New York Rangers.

“Before he ever ran for office, he was a big Knicks fan,” Silver said of Trump. “I’ve been with the league for a long time. I was there at many Knicks games with him in the old days. He attended many of our drafts when they used to take place at Madison Square Garden, and he actually appeared in one of our ‘I love this Game’ spots when I was running NBA entertainment years ago” (in 2004).

–Field Level Media

Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix is on track in his recovery from a fractured ankle and expected to participate in mandatory minicamp on June 16-18, head coach Sean Payton said Thursday.

The Broncos’ first three days of voluntary OTAs concluded Thursday, the first session open to the media. Nix was in attendance but did not participate with the team during this time.

“It’s good,” Payton said of Nix’s progress in his recovery after fracturing his right ankle in Denver’s divisional-round playoff win over the Buffalo Bills on Jan. 17.

“You don’t see the pre-practice, but he’s been throwing,” the coach said. “I do think in our third week, when you guys (media) are out here for three straight days, I think you’ll see more of a role.”

Denver has a second week of OTAs slated for June 9-11, with Nix expected to miss that as well, Payton said.

Quarterbacks Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger are competing for the backup position behind Nix.

Nix, 26, had surgery three days after the injury, and underwent a pre-planned cleanup procedure on the ankle in April.

He has been a spark in the two seasons since Denver picked him 12th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. He has posted a 24-10 regular-season record with a 64.8 completion percentage, 7,706 passing yards and 54 touchdowns to 23 interceptions. He has also rushed for 786 yards and nine TDs, leading the Broncos to the playoffs both years.

–Field Level Media

The Texas Rangers activated star shortstop Corey Seager from the 10-day injured list Thursday and he’s expected to be in the lineup for Friday’s home game against the Cleveland Guardians.

Seager was on the IL due to lower-back inflammation. He last appeared in a game on May 13.

The 32-year-old is batting just .179 this season and is hitless in a career-worst 27 consecutive at-bats. He has seven home runs and 20 RBIs in 42 games.

Seager is in his fifth season with Texas and was named World Series MVP in 2023 when the Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games. He was the runner-up for regular-season MVP honors behind Shohei Ohtani, then of the Los Angeles Angels.

Seager also was World Series MVP with the champion Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. He is a five-time All-Star.

The Rangers also may activate outfielder Wyatt Langford prior to Friday’s game.

Langford sustained a forearm flexor strain in April and last played for Texas on April 21. He is batting .238 with one homer and four RBIs in 20 games this season. Last year, he registered 22 home runs, 62 RBIs and 22 steals in 134 games.

Langford, 24, began a rehab assignment at Round Rock on Saturday. He is 2-for-10 with a homer and two RBIs in four minor league games.

Texas also optioned outfielder Alejandro Osuna, 23, and third baseman Cody Freeman, 25, to Triple-A Round Rock.

Osuna batted .253 with nine RBIs in 37 games, while Freeman was 1-for-2 in his lone game on Wednesday.

–Field Level Media

Instead of playing in the World’s Most Famous Arena, Duke and Michigan will clash in a baseball park more than a thousand miles away.

The highly anticipated matchup between the Blue Devils and national champion Wolverines is in the process of moving to the Miami Marlins’ loanDepot Park rather than Madison Square Garden, CBS Sports and Front Office Sports have reported.

The game remains scheduled for Dec. 21 with Amazon Prime Video owning the broadcast rights. The contracts to move to Miami have not been signed, according to the reports.

The reported reason for the switch has to do with Duke’s unprecedented agreement with Amazon and how it intersects with a conference’s territorial TV rights.

Fox is the Big Ten’s primary broadcast partner, and it pushed back on Amazon getting Michigan’s game at Madison Square Garden because the arena is part of the conference’s footprint. Teams like Rutgers have played conference games at MSG in recent years, and Illinois faced Duke there in February 2024.

Last year, Michigan and Duke began a series by playing in Washington, D.C., and ESPN (the ACC’s primary partner) got to broadcast the game. The Big Ten expected its partner to be able to broadcast a Duke-Michigan game and was “miffed” when Duke struck a three-game deal with Amazon, Yahoo reported.

Moving the game to Miami takes it out of Big Ten country, but rather than head to a standard basketball arena, Michigan coach Dusty May reached out to Marlins owner Bruce Sherman, according to CBS Sports. May built a friendship with Sherman while he was coaching Florida Atlantic, whom he took on a Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2023.

Sherman approached May with the idea of holding an FAU game at loanDepot Park and now gets a Duke-Michigan showdown instead.

The retractable-roof arena has not held a basketball game before, but it isn’t unheard of for a Major League Baseball venue to do so. Wisconsin and Stanford played a men’s game and the Wisconsin and Kansas State women’s teams faced off at Milwaukee’s American Family Field in 2022. Also, the University of San Diego and San Diego State played at Petco Park in 2015.

Also, the NHL brought loanDepot Park out of its comfort zone when it held the Winter Classic there on Jan. 2 of this year.

–Field Level Media

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The road to the NBA Finals was not exactly smooth for the San Antonio Spurs.

They had — and lost — home-court advantage in Round 1 against Portland, before recovering to win the series. In Round 2 against Minnesota, the same thing happened. In the Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City, they trailed 2-1 before finding a way to oust the defending champion Thunder in seven games.

And now, the finals. They had home-court advantage and lost it in Game 1 against the New York Knicks. Adversity, hello again.

“We’ve been consistent in that regard,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said Thursday as his team prepares for Game 2 on Friday night. “I think one thing we have learned in our three series is that series are long. Games are long. Things shift quickly, whether that’s health, who’s playing well or hot, quote-unquote, at the time. Teams at this stage typically have shown the ability to evolve on the fly and improve within a series.”

That’s what will be required if the Spurs are going to head to New York with this series knotted at a game apiece.

They shot poorly in Game 1 (36%), extremely poorly from 3-point range (26%, missing 32 of 43 tries), had 16 assists (nowhere near enough), got outscored in the paint 50-42 and couldn’t hold a 14-point third-quarter lead. The Knicks deserve credit for creating a whole lot of those issues, but the Spurs know they’re capable of much better play.

“I think the reason we lost that game isn’t even technical (or) tactical,” Spurs star Victor Wembanyama said. “We need to approach the game with a better mental state. We just need to play our game. We just need to be normal.”

Normal?

“‘Normal’ means trusting each other, trusting the basketball gods, trusting the game plan, executing, and not relying on talent so much to make shots or to save the day,” Wembanyama said. “We’ve been playing a certain way all season. We’ve been successful this way. There’s no reason to change the day the finals start.”

It was easy for the Spurs to find areas to clean up.

For the Knicks these days, that’s considerably tougher.

They’re 12-0 in their last 12 games, the third team to do that in a single postseason. The other two — San Antonio in 1999 and Golden State in 2017 — were NBA champions. The Knicks are certainly playing like a championship-capable team, but star guard Jalen Brunson insists that New York can’t subscribe to any sort of thinking that suggests the job is done and a parade is inevitable.

“It’s all about just getting better every single day, keep chipping away, keep chipping away, being 1% better,” said Brunson, who led all scorers with 30 points in his finals debut Wednesday. “When you take steps back, how can you improve? … Having that mentality and focus and approach I think allows us to still be students of the game and still find ways to learn, even through wins, and I think we need to continue to do that.”

The Knicks were coming off their second nine-day break between series — an unintended consequence of sweeping Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference semifinals and Cleveland in the East finals — and handled it just fine.

But New York’s Mikal Bridges knows Game 2 will be better.

“I don’t think our Game 1s, even though we won, have been great at all,” Bridges said. “It’s tough to assimilate the emotional aspect, how physical it’s going to be when you’re in practice every day, besides being in those games. It’s tough. … Now, we kind of got a rhythm. We’ve got to be better and I know we will be Game 2.”

The Spurs hope they will as well.

It’s not must-win time for San Antonio, but going to New York in a 2-0 hole would make the challenge of winning the finals considerably more daunting. The Spurs have handled all the adversity that has come their way so far in the playoffs, and now have to answer that bell again.

“It’s very reassuring,” Wembanyama said. “We know we’re not here by chance. We’ve been through some weird — what do you call it? — weird situations, whatever. Yes, it’s reassuring to know that these guys, the 18 guys we got, are built this way. They are resilient.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson was wowed upon hearing how high the price had climbed on the secondary market for the cheapest ticket in New York for Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs.

What left the Knicks star nearly stumped was determining what he would deem worthy of spending $7,500 to go see.

“That’s a good question,” Brunson said Thursday. He paused for a few seconds before delivering his answer: “A live Michael Jackson performance.”

Thriller, indeed.

From Bay Ridge to the Bronx and beyond, the Big Apple has gone nuts for the Knicks.

The team is not only in the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years, New York is riding a 12-0 roll after rallying from a 14-point second-half deficit in a 105-95 win at San Antonio in Game 1 on Wednesday night. Game 2 is Friday night in San Antonio before the series shifts to New York on Monday.

It seems as if the entire city is on board. There were the thousands who filled Madison Square Garden to watch the game on the big screen, only to be matched by the thousands more celebrating outside in the shadow of the Empire State Building lit up in the Knicks’ blue and orange.

The MTA — the city’s transit authority — got into the spirit by painting several subway stops around the arena in Knicks colors. And Mayor Zohran Mamdani even signed an executive order temporarily lifting children’s bedtime hours.

“Knicks in Four!” chants erupted shortly after midnight, as fans climbed light posts and even on an ambulance outside of MSG.

Similar scenes were captured at a free watch party in Central Park, and across the five boroughs.

At a bar in Brooklyn, fans spilled out onto the outside sidewalk to watch the game on the TV inside. At a pizzeria a few doors down, fans gathered around a flat screen TV someone erected in the trunk of a car.

All of this for a chance to be a part of what could be history 53 years in the making, since Willis Reed and company last brought an NBA title to what was and evidently remains a basketball-mad metropolis. The buzz in the city has overwhelmed much talk of the World Cup, which opens in a week.

“Honestly, I just feel grateful to be here and experience the New York Knicks, doing what we haven’t done in a long time,” Owen Odigie said, celebrating the Game 1 win inside Madison Square Garden. “It’s special. It’s beautiful.”

Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns could feel the Big Apple energy some 1,800 miles away in San Antonio following Game 1.

“You feel the energy in the city, the grit, the grind, the hard work you’ve got to put in to make it in the city,” said Towns, who hails from New Jersey. “I think we reflect all our fans … when we step on that court with a Knicks jersey.”

Knicks fans even made their presence felt in San Antonio, beyond the familiar celebrities of Spike Lee, Tracy Morgan, Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller and more. The crowd in San Antonio was made up of an estimated 20% Knicks fans, some of whom made their voices heard in yelling, “Let’s go, Knicks,” during the national anthem.

In reality, given the soaring prices at home, it was reasonably cheaper for Knicks fans to make the trip to San Antonio, even when taking into account flight and lodging costs. Tickets for Game 1 started at around $750 on the secondary market.

Spurs guard Julian Champagnie — a native New Yorker — wasn’t surprised to see the Knicks contingent.

“I kind of expected that,” Champagnie said. “I’m from New York. I know how New York fans travel and stuff like that, so I kind of expected that.”

Towns said he couldn’t be more appreciative of the love being shown by Knicks fans. But he said he also prays for the New York police officers tasked with keeping people safe amid the frenzy.

“All those men and women out there that are not only protecting everybody … they are huge fans of the Knicks and support the Knicks fans in their ability to show how much they love the Knicks and being as lenient as possible without causing chaos,” Towns said. “So, shout-out to the men and women of the NYPD.”

___

Wawrow reported from Buffalo, New York, and Reynolds from San Antonio.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, a longtime New York Knicks fan, said he plans to attend an NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden next week at the invitation of the team’s owner.

Describing himself as a “big fan” of the team and owner James Dolan, Trump said Thursday that he will be in the arena for at least one game next week. The NBA believes it would make him the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.

“The answer is yes — he’s invited me, I’m going,” Trump said of Dolan’s invitation. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he was eyeing Game 3 on Monday but didn’t rule out Game 4 on Wednesday. “Maybe I’ll do both.”

Trump, who is simultaneously contending with a war in Iran, strife in Congress and looming midterm elections, said he made sure to catch some of Game 1 on Wednesday as the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs and took a 1-0 lead in the series.

“I missed the middle because I talk to generals all night long now, but I watched that end of the game and they were dominant,” Trump said. “Really amazing.”

Asked about his plans for next week, Trump went on to offer his own game recap, giving nothing but praise for the Knicks. Taking questions after an event on his administration’s efforts to promote the U.S. coal industry, Trump said it “wasn’t looking good” for the Knicks early on but commended them for holding back Victor Wembanyama, the towering Spurs center.

“I say, how do you guard this guy? He’s 7-foot-5 and he’s got a great shot, right? But they find a way to do it. They’re really great.”

The NBA said it believes no other sitting president has attended an NBA Finals game. Earlier Thursday, Commissioner Adam Silver said some former presidents had attended. He recalled Trump as a Knicks fan long before his political career.

“Donald Trump, before he ever ran for office, he was a big Knicks fan,” Silver said. “I was there at many Knicks games with him in the old days. He attended many of our drafts when they used to take place at Madison Square Garden.”

Silver reiterated a message he conveyed Wednesday amid reports that Trump might attend — that sports can be unifying, even in deeply divided political times.

“We can emphasize what we have in common, not what pulls us apart,” Silver said. “We’re seeing that in New York and I think President Trump is very much a New Yorker, and I’m thrilled that yet another New Yorker wants to participate in the enthusiasm and the joy around this Knick team.”

The commissioner acknowledged that Trump’s presence will require extra security in and around Madison Square Garden. That would almost certainly mean longer transit times and logistical issues for fans.

“I think the fans are very understanding of that,” Silver said. “I think they recognize that it adds to the bigness of the event.”

___

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in San Antonio contributed to this report.

MONACO, June 4 (Reuters) – Las Vegas will continue to host a Formula One Grand Prix until at least 2037 after agreeing a 10-year contract extension, all parties announced on Thursday.

The floodlit Saturday night race, which features drivers racing along the Nevada city’s famed Strip at more than 200mph/320kph, is one of three U.S. rounds on the F1 calendar — with Austin and Miami — and first hosted a grand prix in 2023.

Austin, Texas, has a contract to 2034 and Miami until 2041. 

“We are thrilled that Formula One will continue racing in Las Vegas for many years to come,” said the Liberty Media-owned sport’s chief executive Stefano Domenicali in a statement ahead of the weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

“Since its debut in 2023, the event has been extraordinary, rapidly establishing itself as a premier destination for great racing, world-class entertainment, global business leaders, A-list celebrities and influencers.

“We always believed that Las Vegas would become a cornerstone of our presence in the United States and this extension, together with the success of recent years, reinforces our long-term commitment to this important market.”

Formula One said the grand prix had delivered $3.2 billion in cumulative economic impact for Southern Nevada since its debut, with all three races to date sold out. Last year’s three-day attendance was officially 300,000.

Last year the race generated $43 million in state and local tax revenue, as well as contributing more than $2 million to nonprofit organisations.

“Securing a 10-year extension through 2037 is a defining moment for the Las Vegas Grand Prix and a reflection of the strength of our local partnerships,” said Las Vegas Grand Prix president and CEO Emily Prazer.

Las Vegas Grand Prix Inc, Clark County officials and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) have all committed to the race’s long-term future.   

LVCVA president Steve Hill hailed a “major moment” for both the race and city.

“As the spotlight of the world turns to Las Vegas, the event continues to reinforce our evolution as a premier sports and entertainment destination,” he said.  

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)