Sophia Michaels
The past couple days have not been great for the New York Knicks organization, as they have publicly feuded with their most famous fan, Spike Lee, over using the wrong entrance, leading him to go on ESPN’s First Take to say he was being “harassed” and then further back-and-forth, including the team calling his side of the story “laughable.”
Unsurprisingly, many Knicks fans have taken the side of Spike Lee in this situation rather than James Dolan. On Wednesday, that meant fans starting a “sell the team” chant in the Garden as the Knicks lost to the Jazz, 112-104, with those fans being ushered out of the building.
The team made an official statement, stating they had not ejected any fans for the incident. The fans were instead leaving the arena already.
NEW statement from a Knicks spokesman: “No fans were ejected for yelling sell the team or escorted from the arena.”
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) March 5, 2020
However, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News spoke with one of the fans in question, who said they were “interrogated” by security and threatened with arrest, but were ultimately walked out and were not banned from the arena. The fan also posted video to Twitter of the interaction with security as well as a photo of he and his friends outside the Garden.
The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov said that while the team officially denied ejecting the fans, he witnessed them being escorted from their seats and to an elevator with a police officer.
Knicks say no one was ejected for yelling sell the team or escorted from MSG. I saw them escorted from their seats by MSG personnel & then escorted into elevator by MSG personnel w/ a police officer present. One of the fans told @SBondyNYDN they were “interrogated” before leaving https://t.co/y38sPiO3Ym
— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) March 5, 2020
It is just the latest moment illustrating the animosity between fans and Dolan, something that seems unlikely to subside anytime soon as the team continues to live among the bottom of Eastern Conference with little in the way of hope on the immediate horizon.
Written by: Uproxx
