New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani went way out of bounds Wednesday night, according to a cease-and-desist letter from the New York Knicks.
During the team’s season opener, Mamdani’s campaign ran an ad featuring the Knicks’ logo with “Zohran” emblazoned across.
The Knicks quickly called “foul” on the socialist Democrat candidate, who’s the frontrunner in next month’s mayoral election.
“The NY Knicks have sent NYC Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a cease-and-desist letter for using the NY Knicks logo to promote his candidacy,” a Knicks spokesman told the New York Post.
“The Knicks want to make it clear that we do not endorse Mr. Mamdani for Mayor, and we object to his use of our copyrighted logo.”
“We will pursue all legal remedies to enforce our rights,” the spokesman added.
#NYCMayor: The Zohran Mamdani campaign ran this spot last night during the Cavs-Knicks game — pic.twitter.com/VjlYb1b8kS
— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) October 23, 2025
According to the letter, the ad was “likely to mislead the public into believing that the Campaign is affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by, or in some way connected with the Knicks.”
Will Mamdani win in November?
The Mamdani campaign has since responded to the controversy, Bloomberg reported Friday.
“Adjustments are being made to the ad and while the Knicks might not be able to publicly support our campaign, we’re proud to publicly support our NY Knicks,” said Dora Pekec, Mamdani’s campaign spokeswoman.
According to a Fox News survey published Oct. 16, Mamdani had a 21-point lead ahead of Andrew Cuomo, who’s running as an independent.
Among New York City’s registered voters, 49 percent supported Mamdani, while 28 percent supported Cuomo, according to the poll.
Only 13 percent backed Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
“The interesting question is about turnout,” political scientist Daron Shaw told Fox News. “Will voters who oppose Mamdani but are ambivalent about the other candidates hold their noses and show up for Cuomo?”
If Mamdani wins, President Donald Trump said he would withhold federal funding and deploy the National Guard to New York City, according to NY1, on Oct. 14.
“I was always very generous with New York, even when you had opposition there. But I was always very generous,” Trump said.
“But I wouldn’t be generous to a communist, a guy that’s going to take the money and throw it out the window. Because you’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. And we’re not going to let somebody get into office, and squander the taxpayer money from this country,” he added.
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