Knicks fever hits the pols

LAYUP: The New York Knicks are in the NBA finals, and politicians can’t seem to get enough of it. They’re hosting invite-only watch parties as an excuse to butter up the political press and cash in on the cultural cachet. They’re deploying taxpayer-funded staff to film and edit Knicks-focused social media clips of themselves, fit with music, multiple shooting locations and a whole lot of hype. And they’re even mocking up government documents in an effort to spread good vibes — and good publicity — around New York’s basketball team. It feels like Empire State’s electeds are jumping at every opportunity they can to graft their political brands onto a once-in-a-generation milestone for the Knickerbockers, and it’s happening everywhere you look. “There is a real unique hunger that is both exciting and unifying about this year and this run that a lot of candidates are trying to tap into,” said Matt Rey, a Democratic operative with Red Horse Strategies. “It’s really hard to reach people on anything live now, except for sports, and this is the height of it, especially for a local area … Any way that you can advertise during, before, after games in the finals is the best chance you have to reach the most amount of Democratic primary voters, bar none.” Mayor Zohran Mamdani got in on that opportunity Wednesday night when he starred in a commercial that aired during Game 1 and featured the mayor’s three favored congressional candidates dishing the rock to each other as if they left their day jobs to become full-time hoopers. He also revealed this morning he’ll be at Monday night’s game, and paying for his own ticket — which will cost the former rent-stabilized tenant a pretty penny. President Donald Trump also plans to attend, and Mamdani demurred when asked if he was invited to sit with the president or plans on holding some sort of in-person meeting while Trump is in town. "I'll keep the nature of those conversations between the two of us,” Mamdani told 1010 WINS. The mayor