Kathy Hochul just invented an NBA championship that never happened.
Now Trump has video proof he was sitting courtside at the Finals she couldn't name.
She tried to expose him – and exposed herself instead.
The Blunder Heard Around Madison Square Garden
The setup was simple enough.
Trump announced at a Cabinet meeting last Wednesday that he plans to attend an NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden after being personally invited by Knicks owner James Dolan.
He had originally planned to attend Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, but the Knicks swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in four games and punched their ticket to the Finals before that could happen.
The Knicks reaching the Finals for the first time since 1999 is a massive moment for New York.
A man who has lived his entire life in that city showing up to watch his team would be the most natural thing in the world.
Hochul could not let it go.
Hochul decided to get cute when a reporter asked about Trump's "lifelong" Knicks fandom.
"I'd ask him to name the starting lineup of the 1993 Championship team and see how he does," she said.
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/2059675906730303519?s=20
There was one catastrophic problem with that challenge.
The Knicks did not win a championship in 1993.
They did not even reach the NBA Finals in 1993.
In 1993, Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls eliminated the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals after New York blew a 2-0 series lead – then went on to complete their first three-peat by beating the Phoenix Suns.
The last time the Knicks won a title was 1973.
Richard Nixon was in the White House.
The Footage Hochul Apparently Never Saw
While Hochul was manufacturing championship history, the internet was surfacing something inconvenient.
Archival NBC broadcast footage from Game 3 of the 1994 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden shows Trump walking up behind announcer Marv Albert at halftime – with Marla Maples on his arm – as Albert spotted him and said, "It's your good friend, Donald Trump!"
That would be the 1994 Finals – the year the Knicks actually did reach the championship round before losing to the Houston Rockets in seven games.
There are also documented photos of Trump in the front row at the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals between the Knicks and the Indiana Pacers.
The governor challenged Trump's fandom and the response was footage of him sitting courtside at the games she couldn't identify correctly.
Donald Trump Jr. put it plainly on X: "Anyone who knows my father knows he probably knows more about Sports than just about any human being not in the business. Kathy's failed soundbite ain't gonna land well… just like her policies."
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/2059697671548391724?s=20
This Is What Hochul Does
This is not a woman who ran out of ammunition against Trump.
This is a woman who never had any – and just proved it in front of the whole country.
Hochul has a pattern here.
In 2024, she told a Los Angeles conference audience that Black kids in the Bronx "don't even know what the word computer is" – a remark so embarrassing she had to walk it back under widespread backlash.
That one made her look out of touch with her own constituents.
This one made her look like she doesn't know the team that plays in her own state.
The Knicks head into the NBA Finals riding an 11-game playoff winning streak.
Trump will be at Madison Square Garden watching them.
Kathy Hochul made up a championship year and got caught on camera doing it.
That's the whole story.
Sources:
- Greg Price, "Reporter: 'What do you say to President Trump saying he's a lifelong Knicks fan?' Hochul: 'I'd ask him to name the starting lineup of the 1993 Championship team,'" X (Twitter), May 27, 2026.
- "Watch: Trump Made an On-Air Cameo During Knicks' 1994 NBA Finals Game at Madison Square Garden," Mediaite, May 27, 2026.
- "Trump Teases Attending NBA Finals Game in New York City," Rochester First / Getty Images, May 28, 2026.
- "President Trump Says 'I Think I'll Be Going' to See the Knicks at MSG for NBA Finals," CBS New York, May 28, 2026.
- Donald Trump Jr., post on X, May 27, 2026.
- Johnathan Jones, "Watch: Kathy Hochul's Attempt to Bash Trump's NY Knicks Fandom Backfires When She Makes Humiliating Blunder," Western Journal, May 28, 2026.