Spike Lee Mentions Courtside Banter With Opposing NBA Players At Madison Square Garden

NBA Hall of Famer Spike Lee discussed with talk show host Stephen Colbert his many battles with players while sitting alongside the basketball court of Madison Square Garden as a superfan of the New York Knicks.

According to the New York Post, the talented movie director took the stage at the Montclair Film Festival (taking place Oct. 17-26) in New Jersey to discuss his verbal battles with some of the best basketball players in the league. Lee, the purveyor of some classic movies (Do the Right Thing, Crooklyn, She’s Gotta Have It) that were filmed in and around New York City, is most likely known just as well for being a rambunctious Knicks fan who is a mainstay at the Garden. He is typically seen rooting for the home team, but while cheering on the Knicks, he often engages in verbal battles with opposing players.

Lee also gained fame when he directed and appeared in a Nike commercial featuring NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, who shattered Knicks fans’ dreams every time he faced the Knicks in the playoffs during epic battles between the two franchises during the 1990s. Although they are good friends, the filmmaker did not escape harsh words from arguably the greatest basketball player ever to put on sneakers.

“I’ve had the privilege and honor to be called a ‘motherf**ker’ by the GOAT himself — many times — across the river at the world’s most famous arena,” he said during the conversation with Colbert.

He also recalled Jordan’s famous return from his first retirement and his “double nickel” (55 points at Madison Square Garden) in 1995.

“Anytime the Bulls would come, me and Mike would get into it,” Lee laughed. “At one point he said, ‘Sit your skinny black ass down!’”

The Inside Man director also brought up, perhaps, one of the most memorable games at Madison Square Garden, when the Knicks hosted the Indiana Pacers, with chief nemesis Reggie Miller, the sharpshooting three-point specialist. During the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals at the famed Garden, as the Knicks were losing a game they were leading heading into the closing minutes, Miller revealed the infamous choke sign toward Lee. That choke sign was so devastating to New York fans that they blamed Lee for energizing Miller to literally shoot the Knicks down that playoff night.

With the media blaming Lee rather than the Knicks’ lapse in defense at the end of the game, he knew that his place of residence would have had to change if the Knicks had lost the next deciding game in the series.