Fan of the people

A delightful encounter between Morocco and Brazil just wrapped up at the Meadowlands, just a short train ride from downtown Manhattan. Back across the Hudson River, a potentially decisive Game 5 of the NBA Finals will tip off soon. The World Cup final will take place back here in less than six weeks. All of a sudden, New York seems like the center of the sports world. And the city has a mayor who is taking full advantage. Zohran Mamdani has been an ever-present face at Knicks games and at World Cup-related events, including today’s match, opining on both sports and often sporting an Arsenal or a Knicks jersey to boot. In doing so, the avowed socialist mayor is modeling for politicians around the world a new version of lefty sports fandom. His good fortune on this front is undeniable. Mamdani is a hardcore soccer fan and player; his basketball knowledge is somewhat less developed, but he’s able to talk about the Knicks and sound like an authentic supporter. He has avoided pitfalls like the one that tripped up New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul when she recently said she would “ask [President Donald Trump] to name the starting lineup of the 1993 championship team and see how he does.” (It was an almost unforgivable gaffe — the 1993 Knicks famously lost in heartbreaking fashion to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and failed to reach the NBA Finals.) “He doesn’t sound like he’s speaking a second language like so many Democrats do when they talk about sports,” said a source close to Mamdani, granted anonymity to candidly discuss Democratic Party messaging strategy. “He’s not putting on — with other Democrats, you run into an issue where they don’t know who [Knicks star] Jalen Brunson is. They don’t know who KAT is. They don’t have Linsanity memories.” Mamdani laces his World Cup press conferences with soccer references, so much so that Hochul has begun to call him a “super fan.” In an April event the two pols did together on Staten Island, the mayor recalled going to