Mamdani's Late-Night Pickup Games Draw Fire at the Police Academy

New York's mayor has found a place to play basketball, and some people in the NYPD would like him to find another one. According to Politico, as syndicated by Yahoo, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a group of friends have been playing late-night pickup games in the gym at the NYPD Police Academy in College Point, Queens.

The report rests on four people familiar with the games who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly. Their account is that the games disrupted academy operations. The NYPD, for its part, says the mayor's use of the gym has not disrupted any recruit training.

The story matters because of the building. The academy is the NYPD's flagship training facility, and the mayor's relationship with parts of the department is already a subject of friction. Everything about the games rests on anonymous sources, and this account draws on the Yahoo syndication of the Politico story as seen in search excerpts, not the full original.

Loading Dock, 10 P.M.

By Politico's account, the games started not long after the Knicks won the NBA championship this summer. That was around the time of the July 16 ceremony renaming the $1-billion academy in honor of fallen NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, an event Mamdani attended.

Two of the sources told Politico the mayor and his group have played about half a dozen times. Two sources said the group tends to arrive around 10 or 11 p.m. and enters discreetly through the loading dock, which leads to the stairs up to the 45,000-square-foot gym. Whether the visits were secret is Politico's framing. Who the mayor's companions are was not reported in the excerpts reviewed.

The sources said the games scrambled academy operations on several occasions, and they described three specific instances in which recruits had to alter their activities. One source put the objection plainly: "It's not a rec center." The same source added that "the brass should be urging him not to do it."

Politico also noted that the academy is more than 10 miles from Gracie Mansion, which is within walking distance of several indoor gyms.

The Department's Answer

An NYPD spokesperson, whose name was not available in the excerpts, told Politico that the mayor's use of the gym "has not disrupted any recruit training." The spokesperson declined to comment on the three individual instances the sources described.

That leaves the two sides apart. The anonymous sources say operations were scrambled; the department says recruit training was not disrupted. No one has put a name to the sources' version. The notes available for this story did not capture any comment from City Hall or from Mamdani himself.

The New York Post also appears to have published a story on the games, going by its web address, which carries an Oct. 26 date. Its contents could not be reviewed, so whether it matches or adds to Politico's account is unconfirmed.

An Old Grievance Gets a New Exhibit

According to Politico, some in the department, along with a Republican lawmaker whose name was not available, are upset about the games. They were already angry that Mamdani cancelled in February his predecessor's push for the academy to admit 5,000 new recruits. The lawmaker told Politico it was ridiculous that, of all the gyms and basketball courts available across the city, the mayor has to commandeer the one facility needed to train police officers.

Politico also reported that the mayor has struggled to convince parts of his base that he is serious about NYPD reform. The outlet compared him to former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who played weekly games in Albany.

What Comes Next

The obvious questions are whether City Hall and the NYPD say more, whether the lawmaker is identified, and whether the games continue. None of that is confirmed. Until someone speaks on the record about the three disputed episodes, the story stands as anonymous sources against a department statement. This account will need to be checked against the full Politico original once it can be retrieved.