Los Angeles Lakers fan Jack Nicholson, Clippers supporter Billy Crystal and New York Knicks die-hard Spike Lee were inducted into the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.
This year’s class, along with businessman Alan Horwitz, will be added to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery on Sunday, hours before they are enshrined in Springfield. Massachusetts.
Named after Goldstein. As the NBA’s most familiar non-player, attending approximately 100 games a year, the gallery recognizes fans for their knowledge and passion for basketball, reputation within the basketball community and appreciation for the sport’s history.
In addition to Goldstein, the gallery, founded in 2018, includes the late Penny Marshall, another die-hard Lakers supporter, and Nav Bhatia, a 73-year-old Indian male Raptors fan who has become a staple at Scotiabank Arena.
Of course, Hollywood’s penchant for NBA front row seats is nothing new.
Mr. Lee said, “The person I saw as a child was Jack Nicholson.” ‘I sat in the blue seat in the Garden and said, ‘One day I hope I can sit courtside like my friend Jack Nicholson.’”
Lee eventually made it to the front row to watch his beloved Knicks. And this weekend, he and Nicholson will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame together.
Krystal (left) attending a Clippers playoff game and Lee Myung-bak (right) attending the same game in New York.
Jack Nicholson (right) and Lou Adler (left) have consistently appeared at Lakers games.
Celebrities are just fans with good seats.
They may be more popular than most, but at heart they are just like the customers sitting in the cheap seats.
‘I just represent all the dedicated fans of the game we love,’ said Crystal, a longtime Clippers ticket holder whose love for the team dates back to his days playing in San Diego.
Plus, for the biggest fans, it never really matters where they sit. Just being in the building when the team needs you most.
For Mr. Lee, it was May 8, 1970. The then 13-year-old missed his father’s concert performance after receiving an offer to attend Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Although he wasn’t sitting close, he had a great view of Willis Reed walking onto the court with his injured leg. This forced him to miss Game 6 against the Lakers and put his availability for the decider in doubt.
“I’ve been to the World Series, World Cup, Super Bowl and Olympics,” Lee said. ‘That’s the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life.’
Sharon Stone and Jack Nicholson attend a Lakers-Nuggets game in the 1990s
Billy Crystal had a ‘tough’ time in LA as a Clippers fan.
The Knicks won that title and added another in 1973, but they’ve come close a few times since Lee became a ticket holder after drafting Patrick Ewing with the No. 1 pick in 1985. Horwitz’s Philadelphia 76ers are also still stuck in a lengthy drought. , not quite as good as the Clippers yet, but still waiting for the first opportunity to deliver Crystal.
Mr. Lee also said, “That person also suffered.” ‘What’s worse is that he was in LA and was with the Clippers the whole time the Lakers had Magic, Shaq and Kobe. Oh, it was really hard.’
Nicholson has been on the right side of his Los Angeles rivals since becoming a Lakers ticket holder in the 1970s. The three-time Academy Award-winning actor adjusted his filming schedule and personal meetings so he could sit next to the visiting bench wearing sunglasses at big Lakers games.
It was from that spot that he watched the Lakers blow a 24-point lead over Boston in Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals. Nicholson saw the loss as the Celtics rallied.
“I kept hearing late in the game, ‘Hey, Doc, we’re dead men walking,’” said Doc Rivers, then the Celtics coach. ‘ And he just kept saying that. I didn’t really know what he was talking about, but I realized it later when we came back and won the game.’
The two later became friends when Rivers coached the Clippers, and the Lakers’ most famous fan even went to check out the other side when they faced the Houston Rockets in the 2015 playoffs.
‘Jack came to that game,’ Rivers said. ‘He showed up to a Clipper game and we blew a (huge) lead and he left and I don’t think he’ll ever go back to another Clipper game.’
Nicholson, now 87, no longer goes to see the Lakers and is the only one of the four new superfans not expected to attend Sunday’s event.
Billy Crystal talks with his friend and former Clippers guard Doc Rivers in 1995.
Spike Lee’s Knicks fandom may be best remembered for his interactions with Reggie Miller.
Hall of Famer Spike Lee: ‘Who would have thought that?’
Lee is still a regular at Madison Square Garden and is wearing a Jalen Brunson jersey that was once John Starks’ uniform. He said the Hall of Fame honor was important to him because of how close he became to many NBA players through his film career, from Air Jordan commercials with Michael Jordan to movies like ‘He Got Game.’
‘I know these guys and a lot of them, especially the visiting teams, come on the court and say hello to me,’ Lee said, laughing as Jordan profanely told him several times to sit down. ‘They gave me five and hugged me. And these are the opposing teams.’
Sometimes these interactions backfire and Lee takes responsibility for the Knicks’ defeat. He was criticized for upsetting Reggie Miller in the playoffs when Indiana came back to win Game 5. When Kobe Bryant poured in an opponent-record 61 points on February 2, 2009, he motivated Lee to keep his mouth shut if the Knicks won as they had a meeting later that night to work on a project they were working on.
Lee has a stat sheet from the game signed by Bryant, in which he wrote: ‘Spike, this (expletive) was your fault!!!!’
Now he will be in the Hall of Fame along with Jordan, Bryant and many other great players.
‘It’s about speaking the Brooklyn language,’ Lee said. ‘Who would think that?’
