NEED TO KNOW
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Spike Lee made a surprising disclosure in an appearance on Inside the NBA
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The director said he would give up one of his Oscars for the Knicks to win a title this year
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Lee is a Madison Square Garden fixture who cheers the team on from his courtside seats
Spike Lee’s love of the Knicks knows no bounds!
As the team hovered on the brink of elimination on Thursday, the two-time Oscar-winning director said he would trade one of his statues in exchange for a title.
“I would give up an Academy Award, Oscar, for the Knicks to win a championship,” Lee, 68, told Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson, analysts Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, and TNT game analyst Reggie Miller before the game’s tip.
He continued, “I got two already, but I’d give up—“
Barkley then interrupted: “You’re gonna keep ‘em!”
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Lee, wearing an orange and blue pinstriped suit and matching fedora, good-naturedly laughed off the retired Hall of Famer’s dismissal of the Knicks’ chances to advance to the NBA Finals.
The Malcolm X director has been honored by the Academy twice — in 2015 with an honorary Oscar and in 2019 for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman.
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty
Spike Lee
Lee went on to explain his allegiance to the team by showing off his more wearable form of hardware.
“Look at this,” Lee said, and then showed the pendant around his neck. “This is [Knicks coach] Red Holzman’s ring. This is May 8, 1970, I was in the Garden for Willis Reed’s game. This is the first championship ring.”
The Do the Right Thing director then shared the two other rings worn around his neck — one for being in the basketball Hall of Fame and the other from the Knicks’ second championship in 1973.
All of which had Barkley not able to resist another joke.
“Wow, I guess they didn’t invite you back to the house after you stole stuff,” the retired NBA star cracked.
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