Back when the Lakers were putting on shows as good as anything coming out of Hollywood, the coolest guy in the building might have been Court.
Even across the country, everyone noticed Jack Nicholson.
“Growing up, the guy I looked up to was Jack Nicholson,” said Spike Lee. “When I sat in the blue seats at the Garden, I said, ‘Hopefully one day I can sit on court like my man Jack Nicholson.’
Lee finally made it to the front row to watch his beloved Knicks. And this weekend, he and Nicholson will reach the basketball Hall of Fame together.
Along with fellow actor and entertainer Billy Crystal and businessman Alan Horwitz, they will be added to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery on Sunday, hours before this year’s class is enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Named for Goldstein, one of the NBA’s most recognizable non-playing faces who attends approximately 100 games a year, the gallery recognizes fans for their knowledge and passion for basketball, along with their standing within the basketball community and their appreciation for the history of the basketball sport In addition to Goldstein, the gallery established in 2018 includes Penny Marshall and Raptors fan Nav Bhatia.
They are more famous than most, but at heart are just like the customers sitting high up in the cheap seats.
“I’m just representing all the devoted fans of the game that we love,” said Crystal, a longtime Clippers ticket whose love for the team dates back to when they were still playing in San Diego.
Plus, for the most ardent of fans, it’s never about where they sit. It’s just about being in the building when their team needs them the most.
For Lee, that was May 8, 1970. Then 13 years old, he missed his father’s concert performance after receiving an offer to attend Game 7 of the NBA Finals. He wasn’t sitting close, but still had a great view to see Willis Reed walk to the court with his injured leg that forced him to miss Game 6 against the Lakers and had his availability in doubt for the decider.
“I’ve been to a World Series, a World Cup, a Super Bowl and the Olympics,” Lee said. “That’s the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life.”
The Knicks won that title and added another in 1973, though only came close a few times because Lee became a ticket holder after they drafted Patrick Ewing with the No. 1 pick in 1985. Horwitz’s Philadelphia 76ers are also still stuck in a lengthy drought. , though still nothing quite like the Clippers, still waiting for their first chance to deliver for Crystal.
“He suffered too,” Lee said. “What makes it worse is he’s in LA and he’s been with the Clippers all the years when the Lakers had Magic and Shaq and Kobe. Oh man, that was really rough.”
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 shooting schedules and personal meetings so he could sit in his sunglasses by the visitors’ bench at big Laker 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 defeat Nicholson saw coming as the Celtics rallied.
“It was late in the game and I kept hearing, ‘Hey Doc, we’re the dead walking,'” said Doc Rivers, then the Celtics coach. “And he kept saying it. I didn’t quite 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 check on the other side when they faced the Houston Rockets in the 2015 playoffs.
“Jack came to that game,” Rivers said. “Appeared at a Clipper game and then we blew a (big) lead and he left and I don’t think he’ll ever come back to another Clipper game again.”
Now 87, Nicholson no longer goes to see the Lakers and is the only one of the four new superfans not expected to attend Sunday’s ceremony.
Lee is still a regular at Madison Square Garden, now wearing a Jalen Brunson jersey that was once a John Starks one. The Hall of Fame honor is important to him, he said, because of how close he has become to many NBA players through his film career, from Air Jordan commercials with Michael Jordan to movies like “He Got Game.”
“I know these guys and especially the visiting teams, a lot of these guys, they come on the court and they come and say hi to me,” Lee said, laughing at how many times Jordan would profanity tell him to sit down. “They give me a high five, give me a hug – and these are the opposing teams.”
Sometimes, those interactions backfire and Lee bears the blame for a Knicks loss. He was blown out by an upset of Reggie Miller in the playoffs when Indiana came back for a Game 5 win. When Kobe Bryant poured in a game-record 61 points on February 2, 2009, he was encouraged not to let Lee run his mouth if the Knicks won when they met later that 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!!!!”
Now he will join Jordan, Bryant and many other greats in the Hall of Fame.
“Going back to some Brooklyn lingo,” Lee said, “who would have understood it?”
