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Knicks celebrity fans, explained: Origin stories from Spike Lee to Timothée Chalamet

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Perhaps the best way to humanize the world’s biggest celebrities is to get them talking about sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden for a New York Knicks game.

Rapper Fat Joe always says a prayer once he’s in his seat, grateful he no longer has to watch from the top of the “World’s Most Famous Arena.” Actress Anne Hathaway says Knicks’ games give her “a fairytale feeling,” with flashbacks to her childhood spent dreaming of being where she watches the games from now.

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“I don’t cherish anything more in my new life than my Garden access,” actor Timothée Chalamet said last year on the “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast featuring former Knicks star Carmelo Anthony.

The stars will be out in full force when the Knicks host their first NBA Finals game since 1999 at the Garden on Monday, June 8, with President Donald Trump among those expected to be in the building for Game 3 against the San Antonio Spurs.

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Oklahoma City Thunder fans react during Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs at Paycom Center on May 18, 2026.

(Alonzo Adams, Imagn Images)

Celebrity row is a tradition at Knicks games. There are mainstays who span generations of Knicks teams, such as Spike Lee and Ben Stiller, still in the crowd. But many of the names and Knicks regulars have changed after so many years between Finals appearances.

Tony Bennett sang the national anthem before the Knicks played Game 3 against the Spurs 27 years ago. John F. Kennedy Jr., Tiger Woods, Adam Sandler, Billy Crystal, Woody Allen, James Caan and Evander Holyfield showed up to Game 4 at Madison Square Garden that year. Actors Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Rick Moranis and Matthew Modine were shown by NBC during Game 5.

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What celebrities will be there in 2026? The possibilities are part of the fun in having the NBA Finals in New York again. But there are a group of diehard Knicks fans who also happen to be extremely famous.

Here’s a fun breakdown of Knicks celebrity row, featuring fan origin stories and anecdotes for Chalamet, Tracy Morgan, Stiller and more of the most well-known New York Knicks basketball fans:

Chalamet has become one of the most recognizable Knicks fans in recent years, with his courtside appearances alongside girlfriend Kylie Jenner going viral during the past two postseasons. He previously called last year’s postseason run “the most fun period of my life.”

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But the movie star, who grew up in Manhattan, didn’t just join the bandwagon when the Knicks got good again with their current nucleus. There are photos of Chalamet, then 14 years old, winning a social media contest hosted by former Knicks players Landry Fields and Andy Rautins.

“He’s the real deal,” Stiller told “The Howard Stern Show” in December 2025. “…I’ve sat with him, I don’t know him that well, but this year we sat at a bunch of games. He reminds me of my level of just, he lives it, he feels it. He really is experiencing it inside … but there are others who don’t.”

Chalamet, 30, told the “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast in December 2025 he used the money he received from a Disney commercial when he was 12 or 13 years old to buy “the cheapest season tickets I could find thinking LeBron was coming to the Knicks.” He would go to as many games as he could walking from where he lived at 43rd Street and 9th Avenue, or sell the tickets he couldn’t use to scalpers outside Madison Square Garden.

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Chalamet revealed to Anthony that he was at the 2006 game when Anthony, then with the Denver Nuggets, was involved in a brawl with the Knicks.

“It’s very pixelated on the footage, but you can see a little kid going nuts on the players,” Chalamet said. “That was me.”

“My whole life, my grandma was a huge Knicks fan, so that’s what turned me on to them,” Chalamet explained. “If you live in New York, you are a Knicks fan. My grandma had a New York Giants teddy bear and a New York Jets teddy bear, but she only had a New York Knicks teddy bear. … That’s what made me a fan and I went to as many games when I could afford a ticket growing up.”

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Timothée Chalamet lives the Knicks fan dream: See the photos

Timothee Chalamet attends the game between the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers at Madison Square Garden on March 21, 2021 in New York City.

(Pool Photo by Elsa via Imagn Images)

Ben Stiller

Stiller has become one of the more engaged celebrities among Knicks faithful in recent years, with his social media commentary during games and throughout the season serving as a connection point for the team’s diehard fans.

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Stiller began following the Knicks in the early 1970s and witnessed their championship runs in 1970 and 1973, attending games with his late father, Jerry Stiller, according to a 2024 ESPN story. Stiller’s wall included a poster of Knicks star Willis Reed.

“The 10-year-old in me is like this is the coolest thing ever,” Stiller told Stern last October.

Tracy Morgan

“There’s only one problem with being a Knicks fan,” Morgan said during an NBA on NBC voiceover earlier this season. “I was 4 years old the last time we won a championship. A baby.”

Morgan told MSG Network in 2018 he’s been “watching Knick games my whole life” and he’s been a passionate supporter for decades at home and away games ever since he broke through as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live.”

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Morgan was shown in tears on the court in Cleveland celebrating after the Knicks made the NBA Finals. He’s been the public address announcer for the Knicks starting lineups at Madison Square Garden and served as the voice of the MTA’s Subway announcements ahead of the NBA Finals.

“Tracy’s kind of like the mayor of MSG. He just, like, knows everyone,” said Morgan’s co-star Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, who attended a game courtside with Morgan this past season.

Tina Fey, Morgan’s co-star on “30 Rock,” said in an interview on “The Today Show” last week that Morgan is the source of her courtside seat at Knicks games. She was optimistic about being a guest of his again at the NBA Finals when they return to New York.

Tracy Morgan sits courtside with Ben Stiller during Game 5 of thethe 2026 NBA Playoffs series between the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

“Sitting next to Tracy Morgan at a Knicks game is an experience,” Stiller said to Howard Stern. “My son’s 20 now, but sitting next to Tracy Morgan when he was 10, Tracy Morgan’s pointing out all the Knick dancers and telling him what he wants to do.”

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“Don’t spill beer on the parquet and don’t get Reggie Miller mad,” Morgan told MSG Network about the unofficial rules of sitting courtside. “That’s basketball. That was me in the projects, T-shirt backwards, tag hanging out, sneakers untied, snapping on everybody on the court, criticizing everybody’s game.”

Spike Lee

Lee became famous as a Knicks superfan for his trash-talking courtside exchanges with Michael Jordan and Reggie Miller in the 1990s, but he’s been going to games at Madison Square Garden for 60 years. He initially bought season tickets ahead of Patrick Ewing’s rookie season in 1985.

“My father started taking me 8, 9 years old, and my father is a great, great musician … his lawyer had season tickets to the yellow seats,” Lee during an NPR interview recently. “May 8th, 1970, Game 7, he said, ‘You go to the game.’ I was at the Willis Reed/Walt Frazier game, where the Knicks won their first NBA championship. So I said, ‘Lord, if I ever make any money, I just want to get season tickets.'”

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Anne Hathaway

After Knicks forward OG Anunoby nearly ran over Hathaway while seated courtside at Madison Square Garden last season – she called it a “bucket-list moment” on Instagram – Hathaway explained her fandom on “The Jimmy Fallon Show.”

“I’m very chill. I’m very loving and calm. But I’m also the type of fan that I considered wearing an OG (Anunoby) jersey out here today,” Hathaway told Fallon on April 29. “… When I’m at the game, I want them to know that I know who they are and that they’re going to win. … I want them to know you can do no wrong. I’m trying to be a gentle, loving motherly fan.”

“I love when Anne supports,” Anunoby said at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit in June 2025.

But Hathaway, a Brooklyn native, also has a deeper connection to the team related to her childhood.

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“The Knicks, to me, that’s where I have a fairytale feeling whenever I go to The Garden and I see them,” Hathaway told ESPN’s Sportish, “because when I was growing up, going to a game was such a huge deal and the closest we ever got was nosebleed, and I remember looking down and seeing the people who sat close up and some people got to sit courtside.”

“And so when I get to go to The Garden now and I get to sit in those beautiful seats,” she continued, “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, 8-year-old me is up there looking down and I’m one of those people now.’ It’s so special and I love the team. I’m such a huge fan of Jalen Brunson. I think he’s such a brilliant player and such a phenomenal leader.”

Fat Joe

Rapper Fat Joe has been a fixture at Knicks games over the years and made some headlines earlier this postseason when he revealed the Cleveland Cavaliers took away his courtside tickets to Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.

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The Bronx-born entertainer told Eli Manning in 2023 he “was just born into the Knicks” and would sit in the highest parts of Madison Square Garden growing up as a fan.

“I used to see Michael Jordan this little, the last (row),” Fat Joe said on “The Eli Manning Show,” while squeezing his fingers together. “… Something I do courtside at the Knicks game, I always give a prayer appreciative of being here and not being all the way at the top.”

Actor and filmmaker Spike Lee (l), hip hop artists Fat Joe (c) and N.O.R.E (r) watch Game 3 of the 2025 NBA Playoffs series between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden

Michael J. Fox

The “Back to the Future” star and longtime Parkinson’s Disease advocate has been a regular at Madison Square Garden for decades along with his wife, Tracy Pollan. He’s been pictured seated with Stiller and Chalamet courtside this season.

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The arena will often show a clip from Fox’s role as Marty McFly before showing him on the jumbotron to Knicks fans. He reportedly received a standing ovation from the crowd during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The origins of Fox’s Knicks fandom are unknown, but the Canadian-born actor was watching games long before this current run.

Celebrities sitting court side (left to right) Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor and Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan and Timothee Chalamet during Game 1 of the 2026 Eastern Conference finals between the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Mariska Hargitay

Hargitay’s relationship with Knicks star Jalen Brunson has been a constant the past couple years, with the two often hugging after wins at Madison Square Garden. Stiller has said Hargitay is “the envy of every other Knicks fan, Knicks celebrity fan” because of her bond with Brunson.

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“How it started is they let me know Jalen is a big fan, and I was so flattered and thrilled because I was such a huge fan,” the “Law and Order: SVU” star said on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers. “I think Jalen sort of grew up on ‘SVU’ … He felt, as many people do, that intimacy and safety that one does growing up on ‘SVU.'”

Brunson said he would often watch “Law and Order” with his father, former NBA player and current Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson. Jalen Brunson told Hargitay he plans to attend her new Broadway show, “Every Little Thing” after the Knicks’ NBA Finals run is over, according to NBC. He previously attended the premiere of her recent HBO documentary.

“I’ve never been like super, super starstruck. I saw her and I was like, ‘Oh, (wow),'” Brunson said during a May 2025 episode of his “The Roommates Show” podcast, which he hosts alongside teammate Josh Hart. “Then, the first time we met, it was awesome, we talked and everything.”

Jimmy Fallon

It’s unclear how long Fallon has been a Knicks fan, but several current players have been on “The Tonight Show” in recent years and his presence at playoff games this spring produced a noteworthy gag initiated by Knicks forward Josh Hart.

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Cameras originally caught Hart untying Fallon’s shoe as Hart was leaving the Madison Square Garden court during a 137-98 blowout win over the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Fallon then attended Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals with his daughter, when the Knicks erased a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Cavaliers.

Fallon recounted on the May 20 edition of “The Tonight Show” that when the Knicks were losing, he had his daughter untie his shoe to help encourage a potential comeback. Afterwards, as everybody inside Madison Square Garden celebrated the win, “Josh Hart runs by me and he unties my other shoe,” Fallon revealed.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Knicks celebrity fans: How Spike Lee, Chalamet and Stiller got hooked



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