The New York Knicks sent a “cease & desist letter” to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for using its logo in a campaign ad. The ad depicted a game of amateur basketball in New York that aired during the team’s home opener on Wednesday night. However, the Knicks did not appreciate the ad. “The NY Knicks have sent NYC Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a cease-and-desist letter for using the NY Knicks logo to promote his candidacy,” the team said in a statement. “The Knicks want to make it clear that we do not endorse Mr. Mamdani for Mayor, and we object to his use of our copyrighted logo. We will pursue all legal remedies to enforce our rights,” it added. “The Knicks want to make it clear that we do not endorse Mr. Mamdani for Mayor…We will pursue all legal remedies to enforce our rights” Knicks send Zohran cease & desist letter over logo pic.twitter.com/ZNCfQEYPvR — New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) October 24, 2025 More from the New York Post: The lefty pol pulled the ad on Friday following The Post’s reporting on the team’s letter, which stated that the promo was “likely to mislead the public into believing that the Campaign is affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by, or in some way connected with the Knicks.” The ad aired during the NBA team’s season opener Wednesday night and featured an altered New York Knicks orange and blue logo that replaced the word “Knicks” with “Zohran.” It was also blasted out widely across his campaign’s social media platforms with the caption “This is our year. This is our time.” Those online ads were all removed as of Friday afternoon. The team, in the letter obtained by The Post, demanded that Mamdani’s team remove all of the Knicks’ intellectual property from campaign or promotional material. Knicks owner James Dolan has not publicly provided input into the mayoral election, the outlet noted. NY Knicks issue Zohran Mamdani cease and desist over logo in campaign ad — stressing they ‘do not endorse’ https://t.co/XNQVxNcbck pic.twitter.com/x2c96oziIQ — New York Post (@nypost) October 24, 2025 The Independent shared more: The furoré comes less than two weeks before New Yorkers cast their ballots 4 November. The Democrats’ Mamdani, independent Andrew Cuomo and the Republicans’ Curtis Sliwa will face off at the polls on Nov. 4, with early voting starting Oct. 25. Mamdani is the overwhelming favorite to become the city’s next mayor, polling data shows. On Thursday, it emerged President Donald Trump has told allies in private that he believes Mamdani is unbeatable, given his commanding lead. He also suggested that there was little point in Sliwa dropping out to help Cuomo beat Mamdani either. Speaking about the race to reporters on Tuesday, Trump indicated reluctant support for Cuomo and said: “It’s really a question of would I rather have a Democrat or a communist? And I would rather have a Democrat than a communist.” He added that if Sliwa dropped out, “maybe Cuomo would have a little bit of a chance, but not much.”