From Ben Stiller to Fat Joe, Knicks’ celebrity fans work at NBA Finals

NEW YORK (AP) — Mike Brown thought he was finished with his news conference Sunday when a voice called out from the back of the interview room.

Fat Joe wanted the mic.

The rapper gave the New York Knicks coach some grief about the kind of sneakers he wears, then asked for an autographed pair if they win the championship, as the team’s celebrity fans got into the action during a practice day at the NBA Finals.

Actor Ben Stiller also was at Madison Square Garden, taking video and meeting the coach for the first time.

“A great day for me today,” Brown said at the start of his remarks. “For the first time I got a chance to meet Ben Stiller. I don’t know if he’s in here or not. I actually gave him a handshake and a hug. I got my man Fat Joe sitting in the back. This is a great day for Mike Brown.”

Stiller was indeed there, recording from a position toward the side of the room.

Brown, in his first season in New York, recently said Fat Joe was the celebrity he had gotten to know best. His wife noticed Stiller standing on the court when the Knicks clinched the Eastern Conference championship in Cleveland, but she was too shy to ask to take a photograph.

The Knicks’ celebrity fans, including the likes of director Spike Lee and actors Tracy Morgan and Timothée Chalamet, having been following the team at home and on the road during the postseason. Fat Joe said the trip to the NBA Finals, the Knicks’ first since 1999, has brought the city together.

“I’ve seen Hasidic Jews breakdancing with Black kids outside the stadium. This is the greatest unification you’ve ever seen of this New York City in your life since 9/11,” he said. “If you want to know what we felt like in 9/11 after the tragedy, it’s what you’re seeing around New York City, is everybody together. This is insane.

“I’ve got a friend, he puts a screen in his backyard. He said the whole neighborhood, people he’s never talked to in his life are walking through his house, opening the refrigerator. This is like, unbelievable.”

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