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You usually don’t have to look too hard to spot a celebrity sitting near the hardwood at an NBA game, and a few notable names who’ve been courtside staples for decades are being honored for their loyalty with a spot in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
There are plenty of sports teams that boast some incredibly devoted fans who managed to become minor celebrities in their own right thanks to their constant presence at games, but there are also a number of franchises with diehard supporters who are best known for the jobs that allow they to afford some of the best seats in the house on a regular basis.
There’s obviously no shortage of rich and famous people in New York City and Los Angeles, and Madison Square Garden and the venue I still begrudgingly refer to as Crypto.com Arena are usually filled with plenty of them when the Knicks and Lakers play.
You’d be hard-pressed to name a more famous Knicks fan than Spike Lee, who rooted for the team long before he purchased season tickets in 1980 that reportedly set him back $300,000 a year. The director has never been shy about chirping players and officials during games, and he’s usually pretty hard to miss thanks to the flashy outfits he tends to rock.
Lee is basically the MSG version of Jack Nicholson, as the actor has been a Lakers season ticketholder since 1970 and was seemingly sitting courtside more often than not before the pandemic forced him to limit his appearances.
Both of those men are more than qualified to earn a spot in the James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery that was opened up at the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021, and now, they’ll officially be earning a spot in that section of the hallowed institution as part of the class that will be honored in 2024.
According to Marc Spears of ESPN, Lee and Nicholson will be joined by actor Billy Crystal (who pledged his allegiance to the Clippers after moving to Los Angeles despite his ties to New York City) and real estate billionaire Alan Horwitz, the unofficial “Sixth Man” of the 76ers who’s had season tickets for over 60 years.
The quartet of superfans will be inducted in a ceremony that will be held on October 13th.