Los Angeles Lakers fan Jack NicholsonClippers fan Billy Crystal and New York Knicks diehard Spike Lee are heading from Hollywood to the Hall of Fame.
He and businessman Alan Horwitz will be added to the James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, hours before this year's festivities in Springfield. Massachusetts.
Named for Goldstein, one of the NBA's most famous non-playing faces who attend approximately 100 games a year, the gallery rewards fans for their knowledge and passion for basketball, as well as their reputation in the basketball community and appreciation for the history of the sport.
In addition to Goldstein, the gallery, founded in 2018, includes the late Penny Marshall – another die-hard Lakers fan – and Raptors fan Nav Bhatia, a 73-year-old Indian who headlined the Scotiabank Arena
Of course, Hollywood's fondness for NBA front-row seats is nothing new.
“Growing up, the guy I looked up to was Jack Nicholson,” Lee said. “As I sat in the blue seats at the Garden, I said, 'I hope one day I can sit courtside like my boy Jack Nicholson.'”
Lee finally made it to the front row to watch his beloved Knicks. He and Nicholson will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame together next weekend.
Crystal (left) attends a Clippers playoff game and Lee (right) does the same in New York
Jack Nicholson (right) and Lou Adler (left) are a constant presence at Lakers games
Celebrities are just fans with better seats
They are more famous than most, but at heart they are just like the customers sitting high on the cheap seats.
“I only represent all the passionate fans of the game we love,” said Crystal, a longtime Clippers ticket holder whose love for the team dates back to their days in San Diego.
Besides, for the most die-hard fans, it never matters where they sit. It's simply about being in the building when the team needs them most.
For Lee it was May 8, 1970. He was 13 years old at the time and missed his father's performance at a concert after he received an offer to play in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. He wasn't sitting close, but he still had a great view of Willis Reed coming onto the court with a leg injury that forced him to miss Game 6 against the Lakers and left his availability in doubt for the decider.
“I've been to the World Series, the World Cup, the Super Bowl and the Olympics,” Lee said. “That's the loudest sound I've ever heard in my life.”
Sharon Stone and Jack Nicholson at a Lakers-Nuggets game in the 1990s
Billy Crystal hasn't had an easy time in Los Angeles as a Clippers fan
The Knicks won that title and won another in 1973, though they've only come close a few times since Lee became the ticket holder after drafting Patrick Ewing with the No. 1 overall pick in 1985. Horwitz's Philadelphia 76ers also continue to struggle with an extended drought. , while still nothing like the Clippers, are still waiting for their first shot at Crystal.
“He's hurting too,” Lee said. – What's worse is that he's in Los Angeles and spent all those years with the Clippers when the Lakers had Magic, Shaq and Kobe. Oh man, that was really hard.
Nicholson has been on the right side of the Los Angeles rivalry since becoming a Lakers ticket holder in the 1970s. The three-time Oscar-winning actor would adjust his shooting and personal schedules so that he could sit in sunglasses next to the visitors' dugout during big Lakers games.
It was from there that he watched the Lakers build a 24-point lead over Boston in Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals. Nicholson expected this loss as the Celtics were on the court.
“It was late in the game and I kept hearing, 'Hey, Doc, we're dead,'” said Doc Rivers, then-Celtics coach. – And he just kept repeating it. I didn't really know what he was talking about, but I realized it late when we came back and won the game.
They became friends when Rivers later coached the Clippers, and the Lakers' most famous fan even went to watch the other team when they faced the Houston Rockets in the 2015 playoffs.
“Jack came to this game,” Rivers said. “I showed up to a Clipper game and then we blew a (huge) lead and he left and I don't think he'll ever come back to another Clipper game.”
Now 87, Nicholson no longer attends Lakers games and is the only one of four new superfans who will not attend Sunday's ceremony.
Billy Crystal talking to his friend and former Clippers guard Doc Rivers in 1995
Spike Lee's Knicks fandom will be best remembered for his trades with Reggie Miller
Spike Lee on Hall of Fame honor: “Who would have thought that?”
Lee is still a regular at Madison Square Garden, now wearing a Jalen Brunson jersey that once belonged to John Starks. He said the Hall of Fame recognition is important to him because of how close he has become to many NBA players over the course of his film career, from Air Jordan commercials with Michael Jordan to movies like “He Got Game.”
“I know these guys, especially the visiting teams, a lot of them. They come out on the court and say hello to me,” Lee said, chuckling at the number of times Jordan vulgarly told him to sit down. “They give me five, they hug me, and these are opposing teams.”
Sometimes these interactions backfire and Lee takes the blame for the Knicks' failure. He was heavily criticized for picking on Reggie Miller in the playoffs when Indiana came back to win in Game 5. When Kobe Bryant scored a record 61 points for an opponent on February 2, 2009, his motivation was not to let Lee spill the beans if the Knicks won when they met later that night about the project they were working on.
Lee has a stat sheet from the game signed by Bryant, who wrote, “Spike, this (expletive) is your fault!!!!”
Now he will join Jordan, Bryant and many other greats in the Hall of Fame.
“Resorting to some Brooklyn vernacular,” Lee said, “who would think that?”
