Donald Trump frequently sat courtside at Madison Square Garden from the early ’90s to the mid-2000s. He last appeared in person to cheer for his hometown team, the New York Knicks, in 2014. And now, while Jalen Brunson and Co. lead the San Antonio Spurs 2-0, the president plans to attend Game 3. But after more than a dozen arrests were made outside the Garden on Friday, local and federal law enforcement are planning to go all out with security measures.

“The security footprint will look very different from the first two games of the series in San Antonio, with hundreds of U.S. Secret Service officers and agents deployed on Monday, along with thousands of New York Police Department personnel,” according to CBS News.

Authorities will enforce “a hard closure” around James Dolan’s arena. The Seventh and Eighth Avenue corridors are expected to be closed.

“Officials are planning for no watch parties, no vehicle access and no pedestrian travel through the secured area, which sits in a busy part of Midtown Manhattan and is above a major transit hub,” the CBS report stated. “Only ticketed fans will be allowed to enter Madison Square Garden, and they will go through Secret Service-level screening before entering — similar to the Transportation Security Administration’s screening process at airports.”

MSG’s internal security team also issued its “no bag policy,” requesting that fans limit carrying personal items to an “absolute minimum.”

“Fans should expect enhanced security measures when entering Madison Square Garden, including TSA-style screening procedures,” the official statement noted. “Guests are strongly encouraged to arrive at least two hours before tip-off to allow additional time for screening and entry.”

Attendees are also advised not to bring purses, backpacks, or totes of any size, as “there will be no storage available for prohibited items.”

Entry will open at 6:30 p.m., giving fans ample time to enter and settle down before the tip-off. Security teams will rely on dozens of metal detectors, each capable of checking hundreds of people every hour, to swiftly manage the massive crowd expected for the game. Meanwhile, trains at Penn Station beneath the arena will continue to run normally, and authorities do not expect the heightened security operation to affect them.

“It’s the first president that’s ever come in to go to a basketball playoff game. So you can imagine the Garden is gonna have 50,000 fans, now you’ve got a presidential motorcade coming in, streets sealed off,” former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Rich Esposito told CBS.

Barack Obama was the last sitting president to attend the season opener of his hometown Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2015.

It’s important to understand why the security around Trump is more rigid than ever before. Officials have ramped up measures because his protection detail has faced trouble in recent years, with two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign and another alleged threat at last month’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

On the other hand, Friday was brutal for the 1,000 cops stationed outside MSG. Even though the game was in San Antonio, the chaos that unfolded outside Dolan’s arena was uncontrollable after a point. Officers made 26 arrests, and 17 of them are facing a range of charges. Nine others received court summonses. Among them was Karley Reyes, who was taken into custody and charged with assault, resisting arrest, and obstruction of government administration.

Reyes had punched an officer repeatedly and bitten into another officer’s wrist when they tried to stop her after entering a restricted area. Another individual was arrested for carrying a loaded firearm and selling counterfeit merchandise. Hence, expect a full shutdown of gatherings outside MSG if the president attends Game 3.

Trump, a “big fan” of the Knicks, will attend the basketball spectacle at Dolan’s invitation. Despite widespread unrest and a large group of people, like analyst Stephen A. Smith, urging the president not to attend the postseason game, the NBA commissioner was quite delighted to hear about his plan.

What did Adam Silver say about President Trump’s NBA Finals plan?

Adam Silver believes that Donald Trump’s attendance could emphasize what hoops fans have in common rather than what pulls everybody apart. In fact, he is more than happy to have the POTUS bring all the attention and more to the league.

“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, and he actually appeared in one of our ‘I love this Game’ spots when I was running NBA Entertainment years ago.”

“We can emphasize what we have in common, not what pulls us apart,” Silver added. “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 Knicks team.”

Silver further acknowledged the added security for Trump’s MSG appearance.

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

On the other hand, Stephen A. Smith has asked the president to “stay home” for a myriad of reasons.

“It has nothing to do with politics, policy, or anything like that, it has everything to do with him disrupting and contributing at the same time to the chaos that’s going to be existing at Madison Square Garden,” Smith said on his self-titled show. “I have been covering sports for over 30 years. I’m telling you right now, come Monday, for Game 3… I expect to see an environment I have never seen in my entire career covering sports. You don’t understand.”

Meanwhile, Trump won’t be the only political leader in the arena. NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani also plans to attend the game, but he clarified earlier that he wouldn’t sit alongside the president.