Paige Bueckers made her Met Gala debut in New York City on Monday night, even as the city’s sports calendar pulled in a different direction and Timothée Chalamet chose the Knicks over the red carpet. Last night’s 2026 Met Gala brought athletes into the spotlight again, with Sports Illustrated tracking arrivals that included Steph Curry, Justin Jefferson and Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu.
The timing mattered because four conference semifinal Game 1s were on the board Monday night, and New York did not waste its moment, beating the Sixers by 39 points. Minnesota and San Antonio played a much tighter opener, giving the night a split-screen feel between fashion, playoff pressure and the kind of games that can reset a series before it settles. The Knicks are back in the conference semifinals after getting through the first round, and the attention around Madison Square Garden only grew as the city’s biggest basketball stage and its biggest style night collided.
That overlap was sharpest in the details. Chalamet skipped the Met Gala to attend the Knicks game, a choice that fit a night when New York’s basketball pull seemed to outrank even one of the city’s signature events. Elsewhere, the league had less glamorous headlines: the Magic fired head coach Jamahl Mosley on Monday after blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Pistons and exiting in the first round, while the Sky waived Hailey Van Lith and added Natasha Cloud. Wings rookie Azzi Fudd also weighed in after Dallas defeated the Aces in a preseason game, criticizing the officiating in a league that remains under close scrutiny.
There was another injury note to watch, too. Sabrina Ionescu rolled her ankle on Sunday and is slated to miss some time, a reminder that the postseason and the weeks around it can turn on bodies as much as tactics. For a city that had athletes at the Met Gala and playoff games at the same time, Monday night made one thing plain: New York’s basketball news was not confined to one arena, and it was not waiting for the lights to dim at Madison Square Garden.
