The Knicks have fired off a “stop and desist” letter to America-hating state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, threatening to slap her with a lawsuit for ripping a web page out of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s playbook and utilizing the NBA champs’ iconic emblem to spice up her marketing campaign, The Put up has discovered.
NEW: Kawas – a Mamdani-backed, Democratic Socialist of America member who as soon as described 9/11 as a terror assault {that a} “couple of individuals did” – tried to win over voters through the use of a doctored model of the Knicks emblem on social media posts and marketing campaign stickers all through her major run, which ended together with her clinching the Democratic nomination for a Queens state Senate seat on Tuesday.
Brian N. Warner, senior vp and head of authorized for Madison Sq. Backyard Sports activities, despatched the letter to Kawas’ marketing campaign Friday night time “demand[ing]” it “instantly take away all promotional supplies incorporating Knicks Mental Property, together with however not restricted to the unauthorized Commercials, and stop any additional use of Knicks Mental Property.”
“Neither the Knicks nor NBA [Properties] have licensed the Marketing campaign to make use of Knicks Mental Property in any approach, together with the Unauthorized Commercials, that are prone to mislead the general public into believing that the Marketing campaign is affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by, or ultimately related with the Knicks,” he wrote within the letter solely obtained by The Put up.
“The Marketing campaign’s actions on this regard represent, amongst different issues, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, false promoting, false affiliation, and unfair competitors.”
Kawas’ shameless bid to make use of the Knicks success and recognition for her personal profit features a June 20 marketing campaign message on X – posted every week after the Knicks received their first NBA Finals championship in 53 years.
It makes use of a emblem with the slogan “I Voted for Aber Kawas” that options the identical font, orange-and-blue colours, and iconic basketball because the Knicks emblem — however replaces the workforce’s identify with “Kawas.”
“Head to the polls to assert your “I Voted for Aber Kawas” champion sticker,” the put up additionally says, whereas that includes a basketball emoji. “Earn bragging rights, make your folks jealous, and let everybody know that you simply’re a part of our motion to struggle for the world on the planet’s borough.”
Mamdani tried to tug the identical slick trick in October whereas campaigning for mayor, airing an advert through the workforce’s season opener that featured an altered emblem changing the phrase “Knicks” with “Zohran.”
Mamdani pulled the advert after the workforce slammed him with a “stop and desist” letter and harassed it wasn’t making any endorsements within the race.
Billionaire Knicks and MSG proprietor James Dolan — a longtime good friend of President Trump — obtained right into a public feud earlier this month with the Mamdani administration over cancelled fan watch events outdoors MSG through the NBA Finals as a result of city-imposed safety measures.
The stress spilled over into awkward public exchanges by either side through the workforce’s June 18 victory parade and Metropolis Corridor ceremony honoring the Knicks, which Mamdani hosted and Dolan attended.
Kawas is a former intern for the Council on American-Islamic Relations who has remained affiliated with the controversial Muslim charity by her activism for greater than a decade.
She has come below hearth for incendiary feedback about 9/11, which resurfaced on X final yr after information of Mamdani’s reported assist for her marketing campaign got here to mild.
“The system of capitalism and racism and white supremacy et cetera — and Islamophobia — have all been used, you understand, to colonize lands, to take sources from different folks, and so it is a lengthy trajectory and we’re simply seeing the manifestations of that continuation … with 9/11,” she stated in an unearthed video section posted by Australian political activist Drew Pavlou.
“The concept now we have to apologize for like a terror assault that like a few folks did after which there isn’t any apology or reparations for genocides and for slavery, et cetera — is one thing I discover reprehensible,” she added.
The far left pol additionally believes federal holidays aren’t any trigger for celebration, The Put up reported in December.
“Whether or not it’s July 4th, Thanksgiving, Veterans, Columbus or now Labor Day, we get pleasure from days off which are alleged to be victories for folks, once they really symbolize the silencing & destruction of our actions,” the longtime Palestinian-American activist wrote in an internet journal posted on Sept. 7, 2015 — Labor Day.
“Immediately I don’t rejoice a time off, I solely recommit myself to a world motion that fights towards the dying, displacement, and exploitation of individuals for capital.”
Kawas marketing campaign didn’t instantly return messages.
A MSG rep stated the letter speaks for itself and declined additional remark.
