🏀 Will Trump Attend the NBA Finals? Latest Odds & Prediction Ahead of Game 1
All eyes will be on the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks when they face off this week in the 2026 NBA Finals, and the most famous former NYC resident in the country could be in attendance to cheer on his hometown team.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said he planned on going to an NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden after receiving an invitation from Knicks owner James Dolan. He would be the first-ever sitting president to attend a Finals game if he does, but what are the odds of that actually happening?
Below, I break down the latest pricing from prediction market apps, the history of U.S. presidential cameos at championship games, and whether we can expect Trump to show up at the 2026 NBA Finals after they tip off next Wednesday, June 3, at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.
📊 Will Trump attend an NBA Finals game?
Prediction market via Kalshi. You can use our Kalshi promo code for a $10 bonus by signing up today. Market subject to change.
The prediction market at Kalshi currently gives Trump a 60% chance of showing up to at least one NBA Finals game - up 45 points since the market opened - following Trump's own statements that he's planning to attend. Speaking to reporters at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump confirmed he'd been invited by Knicks owner James Dolan to MSG and said, "I think I'll be going to one of the games."
If he follows through, he'd be the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals game, which is the type of historic first Trump often enjoys. The market is clearly buying stock in him attending at least one game with the majority of trades on “yes” behind nearly $120,000 in trading volume.
Still, that number isn't a lock. The Finals tip off Wednesday, and MSG is only guaranteed Game 3 (June 8) and Game 4 (June 10). The security logistics at a dense indoor arena like the Garden, which sits in the middle of the most crowded city in the country, present a different challenge from an outdoor stadium or arena outside a major city center.
There’s also the question of the crowd: New York was one of 19 states (plus D.C.) to vote against Trump in the last presidential election, and he lost New York City by a 37-point margin. Given his current unpopularity across the city and state, I wouldn’t exactly expect Knicks fans to offer him a standing ovation if he shows up.
Trump’s history attending major sporting events
| Date | Event | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Jan. 8, 2018 | CFP National Championship (Alabama vs. Georgia) | Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta) |
| Oct. 27, 2019 | World Series Game 5 (Astros vs. Nationals) | Nationals Park (Washington, D.C.) |
| Jan. 13, 2020 | CFP National Championship (LSU vs. Clemson) | Caesars Superdome (New Orleans) |
| Feb. 9, 2025 | Super Bowl 59 (Chiefs vs. Eagles) | Caesars Superdome (New Orleans) |
| July 13, 2025 | FIFA Club World Cup Final (Chelsea vs. PSG) | MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, N.J.) |
| Jan. 19, 2026 | CFP National Championship (Indiana vs. Miami) | Hard Rock Stadium (Miami) |
Across both of his terms in office, Trump has made attending major championship games something of a tradition. No sitting president had ever attended a Super Bowl before Trump did it in February 2025. He's been to three College Football Playoff title games while in office. In 2019, he crashed a World Series game - his only appearance at a non-neutral site - and was met with "lock him up" chants from the home crowd in the nation’s capital.
This time, Trump says he received a personal invite from Dolan, who donated to both of his presidential campaigns. Considering that relationship and Trump's track record at championship events, it makes sense that the market went from an opening at 15% to jumping over 80% almost immediately after his initial comments before fading after.
A closer look at his past championship attendance tells a more selective story than first blush. Nearly all of Trump’s previous stops came at neutral-site venues in conservative-leaning states in the South, and his lone appearance with a traditional home crowd ended in boos. Attending the NBA Finals at MSG could run the risk of a similar result for Trump, who is in the midst of repairing his public image amid low approval ratings.
🏀 Has the president ever attended the NBA Finals?
No sitting U.S. president has ever attended the NBA Finals, including Trump, who has attended other major events like the Super Bowl and World Series. But he isn’t the only president who has made an appearance at a major championship event.
The tradition dates back over a century starting with Woodrow Wilson attending the 1915 World Series and Calvin Coolidge watching the Washington Senators win it all in his own backyard in 1924. For much of baseball's golden era, a president at the World Series was priced in: Herbert Hoover made the trip to Philadelphia three straight years from 1929-31, while Franklin D. Roosevelt went twice in 1933 and 1936.
Then things slowed considerably, though Trump has reignited the trend across his two terms. Here’s a deeper look at the history of sitting presidents at major sporting events before Trump's first term:
History of sitting presidents attending sports championships (pre-Trump)
| Year | President | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1915 | Woodrow Wilson | World Series (Game 2) |
| 1924 | Calvin Coolidge | World Series (Games 1, 6, 7) |
| 1929-31 | Herbert Hoover | World Series (1929 Game 5, 1930 Game 1, 1931 Game 3) |
| 1933, 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | World Series (1933 Game 3, 1936 Game 2) |
| 1956 | Dwight Eisenhower | World Series (Game 1) |
| 1979 | Jimmy Carter | World Series (Game 7) |
| 1983 | Ronald Reagan | World Series (Game 1) |
| 1994 | Bill Clinton | NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship |
| 2001 | George W. Bush | World Series (Game 3) |
After FDR went to the Polo Grounds for Game 2 of the 1936 World Series, no sitting president attended a championship game for two full decades. Dwight Eisenhower finally broke the streak in 1956 before another 23 years passed ahead of Jimmy Carter (1979) and Ronald Reagan (1983) following suit.
The only sitting president besides Trump to attend a non-World Series championship game is Bill Clinton, who watched his Arkansas Razorbacks lose to Duke in the 1994 NCAA Tournament final. George W. Bush threw out arguably the most iconic first pitch in baseball history at Yankee Stadium before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, and that was it for 18 years until Trump revived the tradition in 2019 at Nationals Park.
While history says presidents don't attend NBA Finals games, Trump has been an outlier in his championship attendance - though I’m skeptical he’ll buck tradition this time around.
🤔 Will Trump go to the NBA Finals?
See all of our experts' NBA picks based on the latest NBA odds for the playoffs.
Since Trump made his Cabinet meeting comments Wednesday, the market has actually been drifting from a high of 81.8% down to 60% as of Sunday morning after the NBA Finals matchup was officially confirmed as Spurs vs. Knicks. To me, that’s the right direction and it hasn’t gone far enough ahead of Game 1 on Wednesday.
Madison Square Garden isn’t like the other venues Trump has attended to this point; it’s effectively a sardine can in the middle of Midtown Manhattan, seating fewer than 20,000 people with a rabid fanbase in a city that has made its feelings known about the former NYC resident (he was once booed at the U.S. Open in Queens).
Considering his tense relationship with the NBA over the years, it would be an odd venue for him to make an appearance - especially given the logistical hurdles during a fraught time for the administration amid conflict overseas. Trump couldn’t make it to his own son’s wedding earlier this month; I’m skeptical he makes it to any game during these Finals.
Prediction: Trump will NOT attend the NBA Finals (40c)
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