Friday, 7 March 2025

Knicks-Lakers Clash Draws Hollywood's Elite - Ben Stiller, Macaulay Culkin & More

The Knicks and Lakers squared off in Los Angeles on Thursday night and delivered a performance that did its very best to live up to the hype, going to overtime with LeBron James and Co. eventually pulling away with a 113-109 victory.

Given that both franchises are well-known to draw celebrities for a large majority of their respective home games, having the two teams meet tends to take the celebrity presence to another level, especially in Hollywood.

With such a wide range of celebrities on-hand to take in the action, the extensive list seemed to check off nearly every box in sports and entertainment:

Good old Larry David was in the house and, as seen in the featured photo at the top, the legendary co-creator of Seinfeld was very much engaged in what was an intense back and forth game. Getting the famously cantankerous "LD" to kind of crack a smile here feels like a small victory in itself.

Actor Jason Sudeikis, perhaps better known to some as Ted Lasso, is pretty widely known for his love of hoops. He's often been seen cheering on Caitlin Clark both during her days at Iowa and now with the WNBA's Indiana Fever.

Macaulay Culkin and his girlfriend, actress Brenda Song, were also in the house for the game and—judging by the pin on his hoodie and the colors of the hoodie itself—the memorable star of Home Alone whose brother just took home as Oscar was fully aboard the Knicks train.

If anyone happened to place a healthy wager that Bob Costas, Warner CEO David Zaslav, former Miami Vice star Don Johnson and tennis icon John McEnroe would be sitting together courtside, an extended tropical vacation is probably up next.

NBA sideline reporter Taylor Rooks and ESPN's Malika Andrews, two continually rising stars in sports media, linked up in a stylish way for the overtime thriller.

Timothée Chalamet, who recently won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his lead performance in A Complete Unknown, has also been flashing some serious sports knowledge of late. So it really doesn't come as much of a surprise to see the 29-year-old Chalamet happily posing with Spike Lee, a longtime sports fanatic and a near constant presence for all things Knicks.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was also seen courtside for the action, which might come off as somewhat random. But when the Lakers and Knicks are both having good seasons, there's almost a magnetic pull for these clashes.

Ben Stiller recently went viral for posting to X about the Knicks overtime win over the Heat during the Oscars, so his presence has pretty much become expected, if not mandatory.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith posing with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather was almost too fitting after the vocal sports personality was seen having a confrontation with LeBron James during pregame warmups.

When you've been in sports broadcasting for over 45 years and have called just about every major event, from the World Series to the NBA Finals—along with being the face of Olympics coverage for nearly three decades—Bob Costas has probably earned the right to have his own stand-alone photo.

Based on the caption, actor Kevin Connolly is probably more often refereed to as "E" from Entourage rather than his own name. The only surprise here is there were no signs of his Entourage co-star and fellow New Yorker Jerry Ferrara, who seems to live and die by the Knicks much in the way Spike Lee does.

Last but most certainly not least, was having NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing in attendance, one of the most popular Knicks over the last 40 years.

The only disappointment about these Knicks-Lakers games is that these clashes only happen twice a year—one in New York and one in Los Angeles—since the teams plays in separate NBA conferences.

Related: Stephen A. Smith Breaks Silence on 'Confrontation' With LeBron James



from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/m1h6E7Z
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)