06/07/26 03:50:00
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06/07 15:48 CDT From Ben Stiller to Fat Joe, the Knicks' celebrity fans get to
work at NBA Finals practice
From Ben Stiller to Fat Joe, the Knicks' celebrity fans get to work at NBA
Finals practice
By BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer
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 Timothe 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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