Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

The New York Knicks — pardon, the defending-champion New York Knicks — lost their first three games of the NBA season. Coming out of the gates, the team looked as you might expect after several months of being treated as the immortal gods they are now in New York City: rusty, groggy and more than a little bit hungover. But since then, everything has stabilized. The Knicks won five of their next six and are easing into a soft spot of their schedule for the rest of this month. They have a bunch of road games in December, which could lead to a small step backward, but the team has settled into being what they are: a veteran squad that’s more talented than most of their opponents, one that just won the title (woo!) and has nothing particularly to prove until the playoffs get going again.

All the supposed dramas of the first week — KAT is mad about his lack of a contract extension! Jalen Brunson visited Harry Styles during a losing streak! The team misses Mitchell Robinson! — have faded away, as they were always going to. The glory of being the Knicks right now is that they don’t have to get dragged down by the controversy of the week the way so many Knicks teams were in the past. They just won the title! They’re the champs! They don’t have to worry about that crap anymore!

Which leads us to a microdrama of the past week that’s about to be resolved in a very satisfying fashion. In fact, it’s going to be resolved in the most satisfying fashion: Jim Dolan’s gonna have to eat some shit.

In the days before last week’s election, the Knicks found themselves once again dealing with a problem of Dolan’s creation. Last June, Dolan — who invited President Trump to game three of the NBA Finals (you know, the one game the Knicks lost) — announced that the Knicks had accepted an invite from the White House to visit Trump. This was a big deal: No NBA team has ever met with Trump in the White House after winning a title. And that is a major departure: All eight title-winning teams during Barack Obama’s presidency met with the president, and three of the four title winners met with Biden during his tenure. (What gives, 2023 Nuggets?)

No Knicks players commented on Dolan’s immediate post-Finals proclamation, likely because they were all still a little bit drunk. But coach Mike Brown, when asked about it at the team’s media day in September, said no decision had been made and the team was “still discussing internally” whether they would go. Teams typically visit the White House when they’re in town anyway, and the Knicks play the Washington Wizards on December 18, which means a decision would, theoretically, have to come soon. The timeline accelerated on October 28, when ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said that he’d heard Dolan “had an attitude” with the players because they didn’t want to visit the White House. This was treated as an actual report, which it shouldn’t have been; Smith, who had just had dinner with Trump the week before, literally said “I don’t know if it’s true or not” seconds later, But it led to all sorts of follow-up commentary, to the point that Spike Lee said he was “praying” the Knicks wouldn’t visit.

This is the kind of conflict that Dolan is an expert at fomenting within his organization. And a story whose central premise is “Are the Knicks fighting with their owner over Trump?” is irresistible, a perfectly optimized headline for our age. Well, it was, anyway … until last Tuesday.

You can imagine a situation where Tuesday’s results were a little bit different, a little bit less definitive. In that scenario, there’d be more pressure on the Knicks, from Dolan and Trump-friendly media, to give some sort of answer, with every Knick up and down the roster having to respond. They were, after all, the biggest, most joyous story of the year; wouldn’t they want to set an example and not be divisive? But after Tuesday? Well, to borrow a phrase, fuck that.

In his newsletter Eyeblack, the excellent independent sportswriter Bradford William Davis dug into the Knicks players’ political donations earlier this month and discovered what you probably already assumed: The Knicks are no fans of Trump. Three Knicks — Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Tyler Kolek — gave directly to Democratic candidates, and 11 different Knicks have close family members connected to either Democratic or anti-Trump efforts. The only Knick who gave to Republicans, Davis found, was Mitchell Robinson, who of course is now with the Boston Celtics (and whose political persuasion is not a surprise to anyone who has followed his social media). This is in line with most of the rest of the NBA; there’s a reason no team has ever visited Trump in the White House.

Before last Tuesday, there might have been reason to be quiet about it. Not now, though. Dolan, whose preferred candidates lost up and down the ballot, hasn’t said anything since Smith’s “report” last week, and neither have the Knicks. But with that Wizards game creeping up on the schedule soon, a decision will have to be made soon. Or, more accurately: A decision will have to be announced soon. It is clear the decision has already been made. Jim Dolan said the Knicks would go to the White House, and they’re obviously not going to. There is now even less of a social cost for Brunson and company to refuse. The Knicks keep winning. Dolan keeps losing. All remains right in the world.

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