What it takes to keep the area around ‘The World’s Most Famous Arena’ secure during the NBA Finals

Madison Square Garden shows a message of appreciation for the New York Police Department outside the arena on June 4. (Marco Postigo Storel/CNN via CNN Newsource)

Law enforcement officials in New York are employing their version of a full-court press off the basketball court this month, ramping up security with the NBA Finals coming to Madison Square Garden for the first time since 1999.

Extra deployments, additional monitoring of cameras, more intelligence sharing and even drone deployments are part of an aggressive, proactive approach in an elevated threat environment, officials say.

Federal authorities said they are leaning on lessons from the past, such as partnerships forged with other law enforcement agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to thwart any possible threats before they emerge.

There is currently no credible threat to New York City for any upcoming major event, whether it’s the eight FIFA World Cup matches that will be played just across the Hudson River in New Jersey, the Sail4th 250 tall ships flotilla, the July Fourth celebration, or games 3, 4 and (if necessary) 6 of the NBA Finals, FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office James Barnacle told CNN earlier this week.

“We’ve been in an elevated, high risk, high threat environment for a number of years and that has not changed,” Barnacle said. “Our Joint Terrorism Task Force, our intelligence bureau, the New York City Police Department intelligence bureau, they’re all working together to identify what those threats could be. And if we have them, we’re going to take steps to mitigate those threats.”

Despite the lack of credible threats, Barnacle said, the FBI will be deploying teams like they do for other major events. SWAT team units, bomb technicians, evidence collection teams and others will all be out in New York City and near Madison Square Garden while the New York Knicks host the San Antonio Spurs, Barnacle said.

Games 3 and 4 are scheduled for Monday and Wednesday at The Garden, dubbed “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” Game 6 will be played on June 16 if neither team has won the required four games for the NBA championship.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is planning to attend Game 3. His appearance will cause some logistical and security headaches for other attendees — who may be required to arrive two hours before tipoff, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the planning.

There may be as many as 40 magnetometres from the U.S. Secret Service set up to screen the thousands of attendees, the official said.

All law enforcement hands on deck

The FBI’s Joint Operations Center, a command hub inside their headquarters in Lower Manhattan, will be fully up and running before tipoff of Game 3 on Monday, Barnacle said. Members from other law enforcement agencies, specialized task forces – which include NYPD detectives – and other investigators with specialties like counterterrorism, will all be there and ready to respond should that be required, Barnacle said.

It’s these partnerships, the ramping up of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the deployment of FBI agents overseas to monitor threats that have really changed since the Knicks made the NBA Finals in a pre-9/11 world.

The Joint Operations Center is usually up and running during major events, and was supposed to go on line sometime in June, before the World Cup. Plans, however, changed once the Knicks reached the finals. They decided to move things up a week early, Barnacle said.

“In New York City this summer, the FBI office, along with our task forces, will have people out on the street every single day,” Barnacle said. “We will have teams ready to respond if there’s a crisis situation. We will have investigative teams out there conducting interviews and logical queries of anything that would happen. But we’re also out there for threat mitigation.”

It’s those potential threats that have been scaled up since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the war in Iran has escalated the threat environment overseas and here in the U.S.

Two men were arrested in March after allegedly throwing two homemade improvised explosive devices into a crowd of protesters outside Gracie Mansion. The pair were radicalized and tried to carry out the Islamic State-inspired attack, federal prosecutors said.

Last month, federal authorities arrested and charged an Iraqi militant leader with trying to blow up a synagogue in New York City. The defendant was planning and co-ordinating at least 18 terrorist attacks in Europe, according to a federal criminal complaint.

“We don’t have any specific threats like that since we’ve taken him into custody but we are constantly looking and we are constantly putting trip wires into place – red flags if you will – for us to further explore,” Barnacle said.

The arrest serves as an example of the more than 100 arrests made by the NYPD last year of potential bad actors who were connected to foreign terrorist organizations, domestic extremists, lone wolves and other serious threats, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who testified Monday before the New York City Council on an unrelated topic. Those cases spanned eight foreign countries and nine U.S. states, Tisch said.

“In my 18 years in government I have not seen a threat environment quite like this one, where multiple vectors are all active at the same time and where developments abroad can have immediate consequences here at home,” Tisch said during her testimony.

12-hour shifts for officers

Tisch said thousands of officers would be out not just for the NBA Finals but for all other events happening this summer.

Deployments will change to 12-hour shifts in the days leading up to the NBA Finals, Tisch said, with emphasis on June 11 through July 19, when major events will overlap. One such day could be June 16, when a World Cup match and Game 6 are scheduled. Tisch said the overlapping events would cause “unusual and historic” demands on the NYPD.

Part of the security deployments calls for drone mitigation, according to Barnacle. Drone weaponization has increasingly been a worry for law enforcement officials concerned with terror threats.

Barnacle said his drone teams will be out for the next several weeks, with the NBA Finals and other events coming up. While the air space is mostly restricted in New York – especially near Madison Square Garden – Barnacle said most of the drone operators they’ve dealt with are hobbyists.

“If a drone operator were to fly a drone there, we will mitigate that. We will go and we will potentially take their drone,” Barnacle said. “And we can potentially arrest them and throw them in jail, and we can fine them US$100,000.”

Barnacle, a seasoned law enforcement official and lifelong Knicks fan, said the famed arena, which hasn’t seen its basketball team win in 53 years, will be secure.

“Madison Square Garden is one of the safest venues in the world,” Barnacle said. “It’s the mecca of college basketball and it’s going to be the mecca of NBA basketball for the next week and a half. Hopefully the Knicks bring home the championship.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

By Mark Morales, CNN