PARIS (AP) — John McEnroe was 14 when the New York Knicks last won the NBA title.
Now 67, the former top-ranked tennis player and basketball fan is anxious to get back home from his TV commentating duties at the French Open in time to attend the Knicks’ first home game of the NBA Finals.
“You can’t ask for anything better. I’ve been waiting only 53 years,” McEnroe said. “So, time has come. It’s going to be awesome because (Victor) Wembanyama is out of this world. Can’t ask for a better matchup. It is like a dream matchup, it’s like getting your best guys to do their thing.”
The French Open ends Sunday. Game 3 of the NBA Finals is in New York the next day.
“Hopefully I’ll be there,” McEnroe said in Paris on Monday.
A French reporter asked McEnroe if he’s afraid of Wembanyama — the Frenchman who leads the San Antonio Spurs.
“No, he doesn’t know who the hell I am,” McEnroe snapped back.
Still, how can the Knicks stop Wembanyama?
“I don’t know if you stop him. It’s probably impossible to stop him,” McEnroe said. “You just try to slow him down a little bit, I’m guessing, just make other guys beat you. But they got some great other players.”
The Knicks won their only titles in 1970 and 1973.
“I loved Clyde. He was my favorite,” McEnroe said of Walt “Clyde” Frazier. “Willis (Reed). What a great team. So I thought that was going to happen regularly. So It took a little longer than anticipated.”
Josh Hart is McEnroe’s favorite player on the current team.
“He’s so hungry and just makes everyone better and the offense-defense thing,” McEnroe said. “But you got to love (Jalen) Brunson, too.”
McEnroe’s prediction? “Knicks in six.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
FILE - Tennis star John McEnroe and his wife Patty Smyth watch the Dallas Mavericks play the New York Knicks in an NBA basketball game, Jan. 11, 2006, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
FILE - John McEnroe hugs his daughter before Game 1 in an NBA basketball first-round playoff series between the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons, April 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate his allies, a person familiar with his thinking said Monday, as the Justice Department also said it would temporarily pause the program's implementation in compliance with a court order.
The potential retreat is a nod to the legal setbacks the fund has encountered since it was announced two weeks ago and a recognition of the mounting political backlash from Republicans concerned by a lack of oversight of the money disbursement and the possibility of payouts to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The Trump administration had defended the $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” established to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, as an appropriate corrective measure for what officials insist was weaponized law enforcement during the Biden administration.
But while some Trump supporters — including participants in the Capitol riot — celebrated the announcement of the fund, the reaction among Republicans in Congress has been decidedly more hostile. The outrage came to a head last month at a closed-door meeting between senators and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas described on a recent episode of his podcast as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”
The furor has especially complicated matters in the Senate, where Republicans defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap or scale back the judgement fund.
Republicans who returned to Washington on Monday said they won’t have the votes to pass the Homeland Security spending bill until the White House works with them to place parameters on the fund. Many have pushed the administration to impose limits or cancel the idea altogether.
Amid the backlash, a person familiar with the matter, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking, said Monday that Trump was reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund. The Justice Department separately said Monday that it would comply with a judge's order from Friday that temporarily halted implementation of the fund pending additional arguments later in the month.
But Republicans said they were still seeking a more explicit commitment that the fund would be pulled back.
“They need to say what they actually mean,” said Republican Sen. Jim Lankford. "They need to say, 'We’re setting this whole thing aside.'”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated Monday that he hoped the White House would move to drop the fund. He said he wasn’t sure if the immigration spending bill would move this week.
“I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune told reporters.
He said any additional statements from the administration would be helpful, but: “I think the statement they made effectively shuts it down. We’ll find out.”
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said that if the settlement is “completely pulled, then I’m satisfied. But I haven’t heard anybody say that.”
It was not immediately clear whether the retreat being signaled on the fund Monday indicated that the administration would also backtrack on another element of the IRS settlement — a commitment by the government to abandon any probes of Trump, his family and other associates over whether they’ve paid their fair share of taxes.
The fund was dealt a pair of legal blows on Friday, including an order by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema that temporarily barred it from being implemented. The judge scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend her order. The Justice Department statement did not say whether the government intended to continue to make legal arguments for the fund.
“This Fund was open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise,” the statement said. "The Department will abide by the Court’s ruling.
Separately, the federal judge in Florida overseeing Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS ordered Trump’s attorneys on Friday to respond to “grievous allegations” by settlement critics that the president abandoned his claims to avoid the court’s scrutiny of an illegal deal. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams gave them until June 12 to respond in writing to allegations of collusion and whether the case should be reopened because the court was the “victim of a fraud.”
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives at the White House, Sunday, May 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks to a reporter outside the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
FILE - Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
