Los Angeles Lakers fan Jack Nicholson, Clippers supporter Billy Crystal and New York Knicks stalwart Spike Lee will be inducted from Hollywood into the Hall of Fame.
Along with businessman Alan Horwitz, they will be added to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery on Sunday, just hours before this year’s class is enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The gallery, named after Goldstein, one of the NBA’s best-known faces who attends about 100 games a year, recognizes fans for their knowledge and passion for basketball, along with their reputation within the NBA community. basketball and his appreciation for basketball history. sport.
In addition to Goldstein, the gallery established in 2018 includes the late Penny Marshall, another voracious Lakers fan, and Raptors fan Nav Bhatia, a 73-year-old Indian who has become a staple of Scotiabank Arena.
Of course, Hollywood’s affinity for front-row seats to the NBA is nothing new.
“When I was a kid, the guy I watched was Jack Nicholson,” Lee said. “When I was sitting in the blue seats at the Garden, I said, ‘Hopefully one day I can sit on the court like my friend Jack Nicholson.’
Lee finally 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.
Crystal (left) attends a Clippers playoff game, while Lee (right) does the same in New York
Jack Nicholson (right) and Lou Adler (left) have been a constant presence at Lakers games.
Celebrities are just fans with better seats.
They are more famous than most, but deep down they are like the customers sitting in the cheap seats.
“I just represent all the devoted fans of the game we love,” said Crystal, a longtime Clippers ticket holder whose love for the team dates back to when they still played in San Diego.
Plus, for die-hard fans, it’s never about where they sit. It’s simply about being in the building when your team needs you most.
For Lee, that was May 8, 1970. Then, at 13, he missed his father’s concert after receiving an offer to attend Game 7 of the NBA Finals. I wasn’t sitting nearby, but I still had a great view to see Willis Reed walk onto the court with his injured leg that had forced him to miss Game 6 against the Lakers and had his availability for the deciding game in doubt.
“I’ve been to World Series, World Cups, Super Bowls 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 90s
Billy Crystal has had a “tough” time in Los Angeles as a Clippers fan
The Knicks won that title and added another in 1973, although they have only come close twice since Lee became a ticket holder after selecting Patrick Ewing with the first pick in 1985. Horwitz’s Philadelphia 76ers also remain stuck in a long drought. , although still nothing like the Clippers, still waiting for their first chance to meet Crystal.
“He’s been suffering too,” Lee said. ‘What makes it worse is that he’s in Los Angeles and he was with the Clippers every year when the Lakers had Magic, Shaq and Kobe. Oh man, that was really tough.’
Nicholson was on the right side of the Los Angeles rivalry after becoming a Lakers ticket holder in the 1970s. The three-time Academy Award-winning actor would adjust his filming schedules and personal meetings so he could sit with his sunglasses next to the visiting bench at the Lakers’ important games.
It was from that spot that he watched the Lakers blow a 24-point lead against Boston in Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals, a loss Nicholson saw coming when the Celtics were recovering.
“It was late in the game and I kept hearing, ‘Hey, Doc, we’re dead men walking,’ said Doc Rivers, then the Celtics coach. And he kept saying it. I didn’t really know what he was talking about and then I found out late when we came back and won the game.’
The two would become friends when Rivers later coached the Clippers, and the Lakers’ most famous fan even went to see the other side when they faced the Houston Rockets in the 2015 playoffs.
“Jack came to that game,” Rivers said. “I showed up at a Clippers game and then we blew a (huge) lead and he left and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to another Clippers game.”
Nicholson, now 87, is no longer going to watch the Lakers and is the only one of the four new superfans not expected to attend Sunday’s ceremony.
Billy Crystal talks to his friend and former Clippers guard Doc Rivers in 1995
Spike Lee’s Knicks fandom will be best remembered for his exchanges with Reggie Miller
Spike Lee on Hall of Fame honor: “Who would have thought?”
Lee is still a regular at Madison Square Garden and now wears a Jalen Brunson jersey that was once owned by John Starks. The Hall of Fame honor is significant to him, he said, because of how close he has become to many NBA players throughout his film career, from Air Jordan commercials featuring Michael Jordan to movies like ‘He Got Game’.
“I know these guys and especially the visiting teams, a lot of these guys, they come to the court and they come to say hello to me,” Lee said, laughing at how many times Jordan profanely told him to sit down. “They give me five, they give me a hug, and these are the opposing teams.”
Sometimes those interactions backfire and Lee is to blame for a Knicks loss. He was criticized for irritating Reggie Miller in the playoffs when Indiana came back to win Game 5. When Kobe Bryant scored an opponent-record 61 points on February 2, 2009, he was motivated by not letting Lee speak if the Knicks won when they met that same night for a project they were working on.
Lee has a stat sheet from the game signed by Bryant, who wrote, “Spike, this (expletive) was your fault!”
He will now join Jordan, Bryant and many other Hall of Fame greats.
“To resort to some Brooklyn language,” Lee said, “who would have thought?”