Stephen A. Smith believes politics may be at the root of a rocky start for the New York Knicks.

The NBA team lost its first three games before beating the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday after ending its longtime championship drought last summer.

Knicks owner James Dolan had famously invited his friend, President Donald Trump, to Game 3 of the NBA Finals and had said he’d accepted a team invite to the White House.

Unsurprisingly, not all the players are on board with a White House trip, and it’s reportedly causing friction behind the scenes.

James Dolan is reportedly upset with Knicks players because they don’t want to visit the White House, per @stephenasmith https://t.co/SRlJD8JpKT

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 28, 2026

“This is what I’ve been hearing and I’m gonna say it,” Smith said. “Don’t know how much truth there is to it because I haven’t heard from the players directly, but one of the things that people have been talking around about around New York City, and around Madison Square Garden, is that the climate was a little bit different.

“People have been a little bit stressed because the owner, James Dolan, has an attitude with players because they don’t wanna go to the White House,” he continued before calling Dolan a “walking embodiment of petulance.”

“This man is as petty as they come,” he added.

“The owner James Dolan has an attitude with players because they don’t want to go to the White House” – Stephen A. Smith on what he’s hearing about the New York Knicks https://t.co/ufJtKvqPjK

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 28, 2026

Leftists are, of course, salivating over the Knicks players’ reported hesitation to visit the White House and Trump-friendly Dolan is in the media crosshairs.

“Just about every single Knicks development since they won the title last June — remember that? They won the title? It was incredibly awesome! — has been negative. And it has all been Jim Dolan’s fault. Of course it has,” writes Will Leitch.

One of the primary reasons team president Leon Rose and the rest of the Knicks brass were able to build the championship roster they did was that, for the first time really since he took over ownership of the team, Dolan stayed out of things.

Inevitably, that era has come to an end, writes Leitch. We saw the beginning of its demise during and after the Finals: There was Dolan’s vibes-destroying invitation to President Trump to attend game three; his stupid fight with the mayor over watch parties outside MSG; his relentless megalomania at both the trophy presentation and the parade. All of that was essentially harmless, though — Dolan was always going to put himself front and center once the Knicks finally broke through and act like their success was a testament to his leadership rather than a direct refutation of it.

Read more: https://t.co/yAdkEyNVqu

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) October 21, 2026

Point guard Jalen Brunson, however, said the team’s decision to visit the White House was still up in the air.

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