Spilled Beer, Trae Young Trash Talk, and a Whole Lot of Tracy Morgan: Celebrities Share Their Favorite Madison Square Garden Courtside Stories

Photographs: Getty Images; Collage: Gabe Conte

There’s a reason they call it the World’s Most Famous Arena: Madison Square Garden is just different.

Sure, that’s a particularly vague way of describing the atmosphere inside the Garden for a Knicks game. But if you know, you know.

Because in a building renowned for its history, intimacy, old-school horn, and unmistakable organ, the extremely knowledgeable and absurdly passionate fan base really sets it apart.

“It’s the Garden, man. The history is what makes it legendary. But it’s the energy that makes it special,” says The Kid Mero, the Bronx-bred personality and podcaster who just happens to be one of the loudest and proudest Knicks fans around. “You can go to a regular-season game on a Tuesday night, and if it gets hot, it’s hot. It could be a random-ass game, but it’s like playoff-intensity. I’m sure it happens in other arenas, but when it happens in the Garden it’s magnified by a thousand. Ya’ll not turning up for the Pistons like us.”

The loud-ass New Yorkers chanting “DE-FENSE” from the cheap(er) seats aren’t the only ones wrapped up in the action. The famous faces sitting courtside have a way of getting animated, too. And when it comes to star power, no building in the NBA attracts it like Madison Square Garden.

“Once you sit there, you don’t want to sit anywhere else,” says Sopranos star Steve Schirripa. “I take friends and they all say the same thing—I can never go to a game again.”

With the Garden guaranteed to be rocking during the Knickerbockers’ run in the Eastern Conference playoffs and serving as the place to be seen in the city this spring, GQ Sports hit up a bunch of boldfaced names and asked them to relay their favorite stories from one of the most flex-able experiences in all of sports: sitting courtside at The World’s Most Famous Arena.

Tracy Morgan Spilled Beer on the Hardwood

These days the Knicks die-hard is a regular on Celebrity Row. But way before Morgan was killing it enough to sit courtside whenever he pleases, the Brooklyn native would hoof it to the upper echelons of MSG to root for his team. Morgan remembers the game when 76ers star Joel Embiid nearly decapitated him and the scene he caused the first time he sat courtside.

I spilled beer all over the parquet. They had to stop the game to get the beer up. Two cups of beer. The Knicks was winning and I was drunk and I spilled beer all over the parquet. That was my introduction to Celebrity Row, baby.

About two years ago [Ed. note: it was 2019], I’m at the game and Regina King is sitting next to me. The ball went out of bounds and [Joel] Embiid almost took off and me and Regina King’s head. You can go back and see it on film. She ducked and I ducked. You know how big that man is? Oh my God. I just thank the Lord she didn’t get hurt, I didn’t get hurt. He’s a huge person and he’s nice and he’s beautiful and he has a lot of finesse.

You ever see the Garden on fire, kid? When the Knicks win the championship, we’re gonna burn this fucking city down. We gonna burn this muthafucka down. There are things that have traumatized Knicks fans. We want to believe, but we’re scared to get hurt. We don’t want to go all the way in. But this year or next year is the year. You gotta believe.

Henrik Lundqvist Chopped It Up With a Teenage Bieber

The retired Rangers legend and Hockey Hall of Famer, who can be seen doing studio work for the NHL on TNT amongst his other media gigs, has sat courtside plenty of times since he debuted with the Garden’s other team in 2005. King Henrik remembers his first basketball game taking longer than expected and the time he sat next to a pop star who received a rude New York welcome.

Going to the Garden, it feels like it’s the heartbeat of the city. I just love the energy in that building. It starts with when you walk into the arena. You’re so close to the action. In terms of memorable games, I remember different eras. Jeremy Lin, when he was on fire, he captivated the city. Having Melo [Carrnelo Anthony] on the team, he was electric. But one of the most memorable games was my first game. I moved to New York City at 23. I had never watched basketball live and I go to a game during an off-day for us. It ended up being a triple overtime game and it went on forever. At the end I started getting concerned because we had a game the next day and I thought, How long is this going on for? It was an incredible game and I think the star player was [Stephon] Marbury, and Jamal Crawford had a great game. That one stands out because there was a lot to take in, in terms of the way the game was played with triple overtime. It was a great experience.

You also get to meet a lot of great people. I do remember sitting next to Justin Bieber and his grandpa way back. I’m going to guess he was 16—not that old. And they showed me on the jumbotron and there were a lot of Rangers fans who cheered. Then they showed Bieber and they started booing. I just felt bad for him. He was just a kid. He was sitting there with his grandpa the whole game, he was so nice. We talked hockey—he’s a fan of the game, he understands the game. He was great. But he had a nice New York welcome there from the Garden.

Victor Cruz’s Daughter Charged Pete Davidson for Cursing

The New Jersey native cemented his place in New York lore when his Giants upset Tom Brady and the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. A regular on Celebrity Row who always gets love from the Garden crowd when they show him on the jumbotron, Cruz has a lot of stories to choose from. But his best might be the time he was seated next to Pete Davidson.

There’s so many I can tell. I remember sitting baseline for a playoff game when LeBron [James] was with Miami. I was sitting underneath the basket and taking this game in and I’m obviously angry because he’s beating up my Knicks, but I’m a LeBron guy. I love LeBron and all of those things. I remember at the end of the game, he had a breakaway dunk and he dunked the ball so hard that it sounded like he broke the rim and he yelled at everybody in the corner. After he yelled, he saw me and winked at me. It was incredible.

The most recent one that I like to tell is I was sitting next to Tracy Morgan. And that’s when you know you’re doing something right, when you’re sitting next to Tracy courtside. If anyone knows Tracy, he’s talking. He’s talking throughout the whole game. He’s got things he wants to say. He wants to buy everybody drinks. He’s eating popcorn at a mile a minute. He’s talking about the Knicks. Then he’s talking about me. He’s like, “Man, you were a legend, Vic.” Mind you, it’s an important moment in the game and I’m trying to lock in. “Man, you were a legend. You know what it’s like playing in New York City. I love you, man. I wear my 80 jersey to the game. I’ve seen you do it in person.” He’s just going on and on and on. And it’s Tracy Morgan. You don’t want to look at him and be like, Alright, Tracy. I love you, but I want to watch the game.

I sat next to Pete Davidson one time with my daughter. Pete and I were talking, having a conversation throughout the course of the game. But Pete’s cursing up a storm. My daughter’s a full personality, too. So every time he cursed, she would lean over and look at him and give him a face and be like, You owe me $5 for the swear jar. Every time he cursed, she’d just stick out her hand. You owe me money. At the end of the game, he reached over and gave her $100 and said, “I’m sorry for all the cursing.” Her face lit up. She did not expect to receive money, she was being funny and all that. She calls him “Swear Jar” to this day.

Sue Bird Saw David Stern Flex His Authority

The legendary UConn and Seattle Storm point guard grew up a Knicks fan on Long Island. So way before Bird was balling at the highest level, she was visiting the Garden. But her most memorable experience courtside came the day she witnessed NBA commissioner David Stern hand down a historic penalty before watching LeBron James up close.

It’s November of 2004. I get courtside seats to the Cavs-Knicks game. I’m a die-hard Knicks fan from childhood, LeBron’s coming in to play MSG. Like, who doesn’t want tickets, period? But who doesn’t want a courtside seat to that? So I’m super excited. Cool. Cool. Cool. A couple of days before that game, the Malice at the Palace happens and leading into [Knicks-Cavs] there was a lot happening. I’m friends with [now NBA commissioner] Adam Silver and he’s like, “Hey, why don’t you come a little early and we’ll do X, Y, and Z.” We get there and in the bowels of MSG, this is where [former NBA commissioner] David Stern does his press conference announcing Ron Artest’s suspension. I was actually there when he said the infamous line, “It was unanimous: 1-0.” After that, we go out to our seats and got to watch the Knicks, got to watch LeBron, and if memory serves me correctly, the Knicks won. [Ed.: They did—and held LeBron to 13 points.] So it was a good day for me. I got to witness history in a variety of ways.

The Kid Mero Thought About Stealing Trae Young’s Mouthguard

The Knicks fanatic—who you can now hear on his 7 PM in Brooklyn podcast with Carmelo Anthony—had a chance to rewrite basketball history in 2021, when Trae Young became New York’s No. 1 villain. But Mero’s favorite MSG courtside memory revolves around the evening he went to the game with his co-star and ended up sitting next to his favorite Knickerbocker from the 90s.

Courtside at MSG is different, bro. There’s like two levels. There’s courtside, like you can be on the baseline, and then there’s the Celebrity Row type of courtside. Celebrity Row, bro, is a different type of situation. I don’t know man, you gotta have black-site clearance for that shit. You gotta be the godfather or one of Tracy Morgan’s kids.

Before we officially announced 7 PM in Brooklyn, we went to a game. It was Melo so Melo got the Melo clearance. So now I’m sitting properly, on wood—a-yo! I can trip a referee. It happened to be the first time I got to see Victor Wembanyama in person. And I was like, Oh shit, bro. This is different. I’ve seen LeBron play. I’ve seen Mike [Jordan] play. Bro, anybody you can name—I’m 40 years old, I’ve seen a lot of NBA players. I’ve never seen anything like this human being in my life. And it was heightened to another level because he did his thing, Knicks still won, and I’m flanked on one side by Melo and [on the other by] John fucking Starks who is sauced. He’s yelling out plays and shit and commands like, “Hey, R.J. [Barrett], shoot the ball, man! Shoot the ball!” This is crazy. I’m sitting next to Carmelo Anthony and John Starks. This is my childhood [idol]. It made him even more real in my eyes. I’m like, He really loves this shit, bruh. He’s just like me, for real. He’s drunk and watching the game. Watching John Starks in a promotional hat—the kind that everybody got on the night they were giving out Kith Starter jackets—and your man is sitting there in a suit and clapping like he’s the head coach of Team USA, yelling at Immanuel Quickley. I was like, This is the best fan experience you can have. He kept hitting me on the knee, on some type of uncle shit, like “You see that? You see that?”

Shouts to Ezra Koenig, my guy. He’s responsible for getting me closer than I had ever been prior to the game with Starks and Melo. I’ll never forget, it was an Atlanta Hawks game—and this was before the whole Ice Trae thing. And if I would’ve known then what I know now, I would’ve definitely done what I was thinking about doing. I’m sitting behind the scorer’s table and the Atlanta Hawks all had their mouth guards right there on the table with their names on it. Having the knowledge that I have now, I could’ve given Trae Young covid or some shit, bro. Because his mouth guard was right there. Right there, bro! You know, rub it in my armpit, or throw it on the floor and put it right back. I could’ve been responsible for the Knicks’ first playoff series win in a decade if I put that shit on the floor and let Trae Young get strep throat.

Ronnie Fieg Also Took Issue With Trae Young

The head honcho of Kith—and the Knicks’ creative director since 2022—is a native New Yorker who has been in the building for some massive moments. But nothing compares to the time playoff basketball returned to the Garden for the first time in eight years.

Three seasons ago, I was sitting front row at the first round of the playoffs when the Knicks played the Hawks. The energy in the Garden that night was unlike anything I had ever felt before, even dating back to 1994 when I went to a Finals game against the Houston Rockets. For some reason, this was the most energetic game, playoffs or not, that I had been to. Trae Young was going off that night. It was a very tight game. I remember Young driving down the lane and scoring an and-one, even though he was barely touched. So I got up and started yelling about the call. Young looked at me, I looked back at him, and I could see that I got under his skin, even if just for a moment. Luckily, we ended up winning that game. But I feel like Trae Young becoming a villain in the Garden was partially my fault [laughs].

Steve Schirripa Got Chirped By a Ref

The Sopranos alum and Blue Bloods star is a courtside regular. But he’s been attending Knicks games since he was 8 years old, and even took the Garden floor during his days with the Brooklyn College Bulldogs. One of Schrippa’s favorite courtside memories is from 2011. Before Jeremy Lin—in the middle of his celebrated “Linsanity” run—dropped 38 points to lead the Knicks over the Lakers, a Los Angeles legend unexpectedly showed some love.

Before the game, Kobe [Bryant], he came close—and I had met him before. He hugged me. Which was just kinda like, What the fuck is he hugging me for? There were a lot bigger stars than me there, you know?

Another thing: I was breaking the ref’s balls. And I don’t usually do that. But there was a ref, that had been around—I don’t even know his fucking name—and the Knicks were losing a few years back and I went, “You are fucking mediocre at best.” The next time he came down the court he went, “I’ve seen some of those movies you’ve been in. They’re not so great, either.” That made me fucking laugh out loud.

Another really good time, I was sitting center court and I knew Earl Monroe. He and Clyde [Frazier] were my favorite players as a kid. Earl was there and Willis Reed was there. And we just had the best fucking time. It’s hard to believe, it was like an out-of-body experience. I’m sitting here with Willis Reed, Earl Monroe—and Clyde was announcing the game so he wasn’t far from Willis—and we’re talking and laughing and fucking around and I remember thinking, Man, when I was in college, I used to be [sitting] at the tippy top, last row in the fucking arena. And I used to pay $6.50 a ticket with my student card. And now here I am—center court with fucking Earl, Willis, and Clyde. It was just hard to believe.

Matthew Modine Talked Junk With Ray Liotta

The Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated actor is a die-hard Knicks fan who has been a fixture on Celebrity Row for decades. Modine’s favorite story has absolutely nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with relaying a whopper of a tale about Willem Dafoe to the late, great Ray Liotta.

One of my favorite stories at a Knicks game was sharing the evening courtside with the always wonderful Ray Liotta. Somehow we got to talking about and appreciating the equally wonderful Willem Dafoe. There was a story I’d heard about how when Willem was playing Jesus in Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ and his junk had fallen out of his loincloth. Being that Willem was tied to the cross, he wasn’t able to reach down and put his junk back into the cloth. Down below, the different departments were arguing about who’d have to climb up on a ladder and put Willem’s junk back into the cloth. Was it hair and makeup? “No!” hollered the hair and makeup folks. Grips and electric? “No!” they yelled. Costumes? “No!” Special effects? “No!” Then Ray asked, “Why special effects?” I explained that, apparently, rumor has it—cause how would I know for sure, having never seen it—all the folks on the film set who were there, arguing about whose duty it would be to re-pack Willem’s package—and then later confirmed by folks in the know—that Mr. Dafoe is reported to be rather well endowed. To which Ray Liotta responded, “Man, if I had a cock like that, I’d be like, Yo, you wanna take a sauna? Cause if I was hung like that, you know, I’d wanna show it off.’”

Leslie Jones Cracked Up the Heat’s Benchwarmers

The comedian called New York home for 10 years, and spent seven of them killing it on SNL. During her days in the Big Apple, Jones—who grew up a fan of the Showtime Lakers—became a fixture courtside at the Garden and fell in love with the Knicks. She has so many stories to tell about the nights she spent cheering her ass off for the Knicks—and the equally talented Knicks City Dancers—while also talking plenty of shit to the refs. But she most fondly remembers the time Dwyane Wade blessed her with an awesome keepsake—and the night she trash talked the greatest shooter of all time.

The most memorable would be Dwyane Wade. He had these dope shoes on and I was screaming at him the whole game. “I want yo shoes! You should gimme your shoes, Dwyane! Dwyane! Dwyane! Dwyane!” I had the whole [Heat] bench [laughing], they was dying because anybody that would come over who was on his team I would tell them, “Hey, tell Dwyane that I want his shoes.” So at the end of the game he came over, took off his shoes, signed them, and there was a little boy and I gave one of them to him.

I would trash talk [opposing players] so bad that I would make them laugh, because it was just funny. It was like a game. Oh my god. [Laughs] Let me tell you, Steph Curry was raining threes like he was peeing on a bush, I said, “Listen, let me tell you something. You ain’t got to do that. You ain’t got to do that.” And he was like, “That’s that Cali water, baby.” And I was like, “California ain’t got no god damn water.”

I would harass the referees like crazy. When they come out—because the referees know who I am—I would start threatening them right there. They’d look at me like, Damn, we haven’t even started the game. By the end of the season, I would know all the refs. If they made a bad call I would be talking shit. I’d be like, “Man, I don’t even understand that call. I don’t even understand why you would call that. Where is that in the ref book? Did you go talk to your homeboy before you called a travel because it didn’t look like a travel?” Stuff like that. Oh my god. What they started doing, security would just give me the card—you know, the card where they say if you get this card three times [you’re ejected]. But I didn’t go too far. It was all hilarious.

Chris Distefano’s Dad Put His Feet on the Hardwood. Literally.

The New York comic grew up a Knicks fan, and used to sit near the top of the building with his father, rooting for the ‘90s squads that captivated the Big Apple. The first time he was blessed with courtside seats, he dealt with a dose of imposter syndrome—in addition to his dad’s eccentric behavior. And—like most other regulars who get to sit on the hardwood—Distefano has hilarious Tracy Morgan stories.

My father and I used to sit in the upper deck during Knicks games, so the first time I ever sat courtside of course I’m bringing my dad, 1000 percent. He couldn’t believe it. The guy who gave us the tickets was like, Listen, you’re sitting in the owner’s box, pretty much, so dress nice. So I told my dad and my dad showed up wearing sweatpants with dress shoes and a button-down shirt with no tie and a Knicks jacket. We go and we’re having a great time and sitting in the seats and he can’t believe it. He’s trying to take videos of it but recording his own face because he has no idea how to use a phone. He then says to one of the ball boys, “You think me and my son can get a cotton candy?” And I’m like, I don’t want a cotton candy, I’m a grown man. The ball kid was like, “One of the servers will come over.” Then my dad goes, “Is there a way, while we’re down here, that we can get Patrick Ewing’s autograph?” It was like 2015. I’m like, “Dad, he isn’t always at Knicks games. He doesn’t just work for the Knicks.” The ball boy was like, “I don’t know if he’s in the building. Did you see him?” I’m like, Dad, shutup. Then my dad’s like, “I can’t believe we’re actually on the hardwood. I’m so proud of you.” Whatever. I’m taking it all in. Not paying attention to him. Then he gives me his phone and goes, “Can you take a picture of me?” And I turn around to take a picture of him in his seat, since I’m not really paying attention, and he goes, “No, look down.” He had taken off his shoes and socks and he wanted his bare feet on the hardwood and wanted me to take a picture of his bare feet to memorialize the moment. And a security guard came over and was like, “Sir, you need to put shoes and socks on.” It’s, like, a health hazard. I should’ve, now in hindsight, taken a picture—it would’ve been fantastic. That was the very first time I sat courtside and it was great.

The best thing is being around Tracy Morgan, I mean, he’s the funniest. He’s just amazing. The energy on Tracy Morgan is just incredible. I was sitting next to him [one game] and he goes, “What up, baby?” He knows me, but he always forgets my name. He’s like, “You white boys look alike. It ain’t my fault, baby. It’s all love.” Tracy then introduces me to—I forget the guy’s name, let’s say Earl, he was an old man. I said, “Hey, what’s up, bro? What do you do?” He says he works for Tracy. Tracy goes, “This is my divorce lawyer. I don’t go anywhere out the house without my divorce lawyer. You never know when the shit’s going to pop up from the past. I got a word of advice for you, kid. Never leave home without him.” I was dying laughing.

Originally Appeared on GQ