Former MSNBC host Joy Reid drew criticism this week after comparing New York Knicks owner James Dolan to a “plantation owner” over his decision to accept President Donald Trump’s invitation for the NBA champions to visit the White House.
Speaking on The Joy Reid Show podcast Tuesday, Reid said the prospect of Knicks players attending the traditional championship celebration with the president was “demeaning.”
“Dolan definitely comes across as a plantation owner character, and the fact that he would want to see these proud black men ‘Yes, sir’-ing a racist president — it hurts my heart so much to even think about it,” Reid said.
“It wouldn’t be their fault, but it would be so, to me, demeaning,” she added.
Reid was joined by The Atlantic writer and former ESPN host Jemele Hill, who agreed with the comparison and argued that Dolan’s decision unfairly places the team’s players in a politically charged situation.
Hill claimed Dolan was “purposely putting them in the line of fire of an administration that has been openly hostile towards black folks.”
She went on to describe the decision as “very slave-y,” arguing there was “a perverse thrill” in making black athletes appear “subservient.”
For many critics, the repeated references to slavery crossed a line into hyperbole. Comparing a voluntary White House invitation for multimillionaire professional athletes—who possess enormous financial resources, public platforms, and personal autonomy—to the experience of enslaved people who were bought, sold, and denied even the most basic human dignity strikes many as an example of increasingly hysterical political rhetoric untethered from reality.
The controversy stems from Dolan’s announcement that he accepted Trump’s invitation for the Knicks to visit the White House following the franchise’s first NBA championship since 1973.
“We still have to figure out the details, et cetera, but, you know, yes, of course,” Dolan said during a radio interview. “I invited the president to come down for the game, right? He is a friend. I’ve known him for 30 years and I’m very proud to bring the team to the White House.”
Trump congratulated the Knicks following their championship victory in a Truth Social post, praising Dolan along with players including Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, and Mitchell Robinson. The president also attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden.
While White House visits have traditionally been part of championship celebrations for major professional sports teams, the practice has become increasingly politicized in recent years, with some athletes and teams declining invitations from presidents of both parties.
Several Knicks players have declined to publicly say whether they plan to attend the White House event.
The invitation also sparked debate on ABC’s The View, where several co-hosts criticized Dolan for accepting on the team’s behalf. Co-host Whoopi Goldberg, however, defended the visit, saying she wanted “all those black men to stand in our house.”
During Reid’s podcast, Hill also criticized Dolan for what she described as hypocrisy. She argued that the Knicks owner publicly criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani following the team’s championship celebration but was not giving players the same freedom to express their own political views.
“I find that to be the height of hypocrisy,” Hill said. “Oh, so you could show up the mayor and you could talk s–t about the mayor, but they can’t talk s–t about the president.”
There is currently no evidence that Knicks players have been prohibited from expressing their own political views or criticizing President Trump. Nor is there any indication that players are contractually obligated to attend the White House celebration. Traditionally, championship visits are extended as invitations rather than mandates, and athletes across multiple professional leagues have previously declined White House invitations under presidents of both parties without facing league discipline.
Reid also rejected the idea that attending the White House is simply about respecting the office, maintaining that the identity of the president matters when deciding whether to participate.
Since being fired from MSNBC, she has continued using her independent podcast platform to comment on politics and has frequently criticized both the president and his administration.
Critics also argue that much of the outrage appears driven more by political animosity than historical context. Trump is not an outsider to New York or an unfamiliar figure suddenly inserting himself into the city’s sports culture. A native New Yorker, he spent decades as one of the city’s most recognizable businessmen and public personalities, appearing in iconic New York-based films and television shows, including Home Alone 2 and Sex and the City, while leaving a visible imprint on the city’s real estate landscape. From that perspective, his appearance at a Knicks Finals game and invitation to congratulate the franchise as president are viewed as consistent with both the traditions of the presidency and Trump’s long-standing connection to New York. Whether one admires or dislikes him politically, critics of Reid’s argument contend that treating his presence as inherently illegitimate reflects personal bias more than an objective assessment of his place in the city’s history.
Dolan has not publicly responded to Reid’s or Hill’s comments.
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