It’s not only the New York Knicks who are doing battle in the NBA playoffs; their fans are as well.
Famed actor and director Ben Stiller is under fire on the internet right now, and he’s trying to prove his innocence any way he can.
Stiller has been a longtime Knicks fan since childhood and has been a constant courtside presence at New York games over the years, and it’s almost a story now when the “Severence” creator isn’t in attendance.
After the Knicks made it to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs to face the rival Philadelphia 76ers, Stiller was expected to be in the crowd to watch the series kick off at Madison Square Garden.
Only one problem, though: the first game against the 76ers came on the night of the Met Gala, one of the more publicized nights of the year for famous people.
On “The Pat McAfee Show,” Stiller pleaded his case on why he skipped the first game of the series and decided to attend the Met Gala instead, albeit wearing an orange tie to pay homage to his favorite team.
“It was a tough decision for me,” Stiller stated on Thursday on the show. “As a fan, I wanted to be at that Knicks game more than anything. … A friend of ours invited us [to the Met Gala] three months ago. I felt like it would be lame to cancel on our friend. The world doesn’t care, and I get it. But we wore our Knicks colors.”
Stiller went on to explain that he purposefully rearranges his work schedule to line up with Knicks games so he doesn’t miss any, but that the unpredictability of the postseason schedule meant the Met Gala sprung up on him.
When asked about Timothee Chalamet, who skipped the Met Gala to attend the Knicks game, Stiller gave a candid answer on why the choice was easier for the “Dune” leading man.
“I don’t get invited to the Met Gala,” Stiller admitted. “Timothee Chalamet gets invited every year.”