Knicks guard Tyler Kolek’s girlfriend, Lexi Sousa, recounted his run-in with police after they mistook him for a fan during the team’s championship parade in New York — and she revealed that it actually happened twice.
“Oh, I was there,” Sousa said in an interview with Wag Talk on Wednesday. “It didn’t happen to him once. It happened to him twice.
“Not a lot of people know that.”
Lexi, who is a mental health counselor, did not get into the details of Kolek being stopped by police for a second time during the June 18 parade.
At the time, the 25-year-old Kolek was running along the parade route and greeting fans while holding a Michelob Ultra in one hand when he was stopped by two police officers who grabbed him.
One officer was seen shaking his head, appearing to say “no,” while another turned him around and pointed for him to leave the area.
That’s when others intervened to inform the officers that Kolek was a member of the championship team.
The officers backed down after that.
“I swear I’m on the team bro,” Kolek wrote on X, responding to post that said, “security almost tackled” him.
Kolek did not play in any of the 2026 NBA Finals games, in which New York won four of five against the Spurs to clinch their first championship in 53 years.
He averaged 4.4 points and 2.7 assists per game last season.
Kolek — who was a second-round pick out of Marquette by the Trail Blazers in the 2024 NBA Draft — spent the 2024-25 season with the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G-League affiliate.
The Knicks open the 2026-27 regular season on Oct. 20 at home against the 76ers.
