The Knicks have fired off a “cease and desist” letter to America-hating state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, threatening to slap her with a lawsuit for ripping a page out of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s playbook and using the NBA champs’ iconic logo to boost her campaign, The Post has learned.
Kawas – a Mamdani-backed, Democratic Socialist of America member who once described 9/11 as a terror attack that a “couple people did” – tried to win over voters by using a doctored version of the Knicks logo on social media posts and campaign stickers throughout her primary run, which ended with her clinching the Democratic nomination for a Queens state Senate seat on Tuesday.
Brian N. Warner, senior vice president and head of legal for Madison Square Garden Sports, sent the letter to Kawas’ campaign Friday night “demand[ing]” it “immediately remove all promotional materials incorporating Knicks Intellectual Property, including but not limited to the unauthorized Advertisements, and cease any further use of Knicks Intellectual Property.”
“Neither the Knicks nor NBA [Properties] have authorized the Campaign to use Knicks Intellectual Property in any way, including the Unauthorized Advertisements, which are 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,” he wrote in the letter exclusively obtained by The Post.
“The Campaign’s activities in this regard constitute, among other things, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, false advertising, false association, and unfair competition.”
Kawas’ shameless bid to use the Knicks success and popularity for her own benefit includes a June 20 campaign message on X – posted a week after the Knicks won their first NBA Finals championship in 53 years.
It uses a logo with the slogan “I Voted for Aber Kawas” that features the same font, orange-and-blue colors, and iconic basketball as the Knicks logo — but replaces the team’s name with “Kawas.”
“Head to the polls to claim your “I Voted for Aber Kawas” champion sticker,” the post also says, while featuring a basketball emoji. “Earn bragging rights, make your friends jealous, and let everyone know that you’re part of our movement to fight for the world in the world’s borough.
Mamdani tried to pull the same slick trick in October while campaigning for mayor, airing an ad during the team’s season opener that featured an altered logo replacing the word “Knicks” with “Zohran.”
Mamdani pulled the ad after the team slammed him with a “cease and desist” letter and stressed it wasn’t making any endorsements in the race.
Billionaire Knicks and MSG owner James Dolan — a longtime friend of President Donald Trump — got into a public feud earlier this month with the Mamdani administration over cancelled fan watch parties outside MSG during the NBA Finals due to city-imposed security measures.
The tension spilled over into awkward public exchanges by both sides during the team’s June 18 victory parade and City Hall 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 through her activism for more than a decade.
She has come under fire for incendiary comments about 9/11, which resurfaced on X last year after news of Mamdani’s reported support for her campaign came to light.
“The system of capitalism and racism and white supremacy et cetera — and Islamophobia — have all been used, you know, to colonize lands, to take resources from other people, and so this is a long trajectory and we are just seeing the manifestations of that continuation … with 9/11,” she said in an unearthed video segment posted by Australian political activist Drew Pavlou.
“The idea we have to apologize for like a terror attack that like a couple of people did and then there is no apology or reparations for genocides and for slavery, et cetera — is something I find reprehensible,” she added.
The far left pol also believes federal holidays are no cause for celebration, The Post reported in December.
“Whether it is July 4th, Thanksgiving, Veterans, Columbus or now Labor Day, we enjoy days off that are supposed to be victories for people, when they truly represent the silencing & destruction of our movements,” the longtime Palestinian-American activist wrote in an online journal posted on Sept. 7, 2015 — Labor Day.
“Today I do not celebrate a day off, I only recommit myself to a global movement that fights against the death, displacement, and exploitation of people for capital.”
Kawas campaign did not immediately return messages.
A MSG rep said the letter speaks for itself and declined further comment.
