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Looking for NBA Finals seats? The Knicks are making 2 in celebrity row available in an auction

Still looking for tickets to the NBA Finals? The New York Knicks are making available two of the best seats in the house — right by the likes of Ben Stiller and Spike Lee — to the highest bidder.

The Knicks are auctioning two celebrity row seats for Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, when the NBA Finals return to New York for the first time since 1999.

Ticket prices are skyrocketing with the league’s biggest market finally back in the series, with tickets inside the Garden so hard to acquire that Knicks fans have instead bought up seats in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Cleveland as their team romped through the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The seats for the game Monday night are located in section VIP 10; row AA; seats 25 and 26, which the Knicks say is right off center court. It’s impossible to know what they would usually cost, because the team doesn’t sell them. Instead, they are given to the celebrity fans such as Tracy Morgan and Timothée Chalamet who are courtside fixtures.

The auction begins Thursday at noon at knicks.com/celebrityrowauction and proceeds benefit the Garden of Dreams Foundation, the organization that works with MSG’s companies to assist children at need in the tristate area. It runs through Sunday at 5 p.m.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

NYPD says dozens rescued from human trafficking during World Cup

▶ Watch Video: Inside look at security preparations for World Cup Forty-three people, including seven minors, were rescued from human traffickers during the World Cup matches in the New York City area, according to the New York City Police Department's Special Victims Unit.The rescue operations were carried out between June 11 and July 19 by specialized NYPD detectives who arrested 89 individuals."The surprise was really the outpouring of support behind the mission and the collaboration with all our partners," said Inspector Gary Marcus, commanding officer of the Special Victims Unit.Those rescued, largely the victims of sex trafficking, are now being supported with an array of social services for the victims, including food, housing and counseling.The 87 operations carried out during the World Cup have generated new leads, officials said, and law enforcement agencies are building more cases based on the investigations already underway."We have ongoing investigations now as a result of these operations," an NYPD official told CBS News.Major sporting events are known to law enforcement as hotbeds of human trafficking.Years in advance, the NYPD devoted significant resources to preparing for the World Cup. Eight matches were played at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, including the final on Sunday."When we talk about the outreach and the prep we do, a large part of that involved visiting the known sex offenders, particularly the known human traffickers, in our registry," Marcus said. "Whether they're on parole or probation for human trafficking, we visited them to make sure they're compliant with the terms of their release, and secondly, to let them know that the NYPD is watching."The matches were held in multiple cities around the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Preparations to secure those games and prepare for crimes like human trafficking were coordinated between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.Police departments in many locations that hosted World Cup matches have made arrests and rescues connected to human trafficking, including in Georgia, New England and Missouri. Nationally, there were more than 673 arrests on human-trafficking charges made during the World Cup, and 61 adults and 13 minors rescued, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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