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    Knicks vs. Hicks: Let Us Praise Old-Fashioned Contempt

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    The camera lingered on Celebrity Row at Madison Square Garden — Timothée Chalamet slack-jawed, Martha Stewart blinking in disbelief, Jimmy Fallon rubbing his temples after his “Tonight Show” the previous night had portrayed Indiana as a state of nobodies. It was Game 1 of the Knicks-Pacers N.B.A. Eastern Conference finals. The Pacers had erased a five-point deficit in the final half-minute, Tyrese Haliburton tied the game with a shot from somewhere near Hoboken and overtime sealed a 138-135 Indiana win.For Hoosiers, the joy was double-distilled: We stole a playoff game and, for one delicious moment, annulled the celebrity cachet of New York. Across Indiana living rooms, cheers erupted. Vindication felt deep, as if Haliburton’s improbable shot proved something fundamental about their home.In Game 2 on Friday night, the Pacers struck again. The teams play for a third time in Indianapolis Sunday night and the Knicks travel confidently, armed with a 5-1 road record this postseason. One stolen game could rewrite the story: Edge, spite and possibility all share the same charter flight.This giddy clash — Hicks versus Knicks, cornfields versus concrete — revives a rivalry that shaped the N.B.A.’s most combustible decade. Between 1993 and 2000 the two teams met six times in the postseason, each series a low-scoring trench war where elbows flew and apologies never arrived.“We just beat the hell out of each other,” the former Pacer Sam Mitchell was quoted recently as saying. Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds in ’95, the choke sign directed at Spike Lee, Patrick Ewing’s thunderous scowls and Larry Johnson’s four-point play in ’99 still live in grainy VHS glory. No championships emerged from that theater, yet the games became folklore because they dramatized two competing claims on the soul of basketball: Indiana’s small-town romance — think Hoosiers and Larry Bird — versus New York’s big-city swagger.The rivalry is back. Both clubs now rank among the league’s top 10 offenses, flicking up threes instead of throwing forearms. Haliburton dribbles like a jazz solo; Jalen Brunson answers with piston-quick layups. The bruises are fewer, the pace faster, yet the cultural tension endures — and that is to be celebrated.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Timothee Chalamet Was a Knicks Superfan Before He Was Famous

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      Tim Chalamet, an unknown teenager, was with the Knicks in the hard times. Timothée Chalamet, the famous actor, is loving every second of the team’s deep playoff run.Timothée Chalamet, the Academy Award-nominated actor, has been impossible to miss during the New York Knicks’ feisty run through the N.B.A. playoffs. A courtside staple at Madison Square Garden, Mr. Chalamet seemed to get nearly as much screen time as Jalen Brunson, the team’s star guard.Mr. Chalamet, 29, was particularly animated as the Knicks eliminated the Boston Celtics in their second-round series. He embraced Bad Bunny. He dapped up Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks’ starting center. He posed for the cameras with Spike Lee, the self-appointed dean of Knicks fandom. He leaned out the window of a sport utility vehicle on Friday to celebrate with other fans in the shadow of the Garden after the Knicks’ series-clinching win.He even earned praise on X for getting Kylie and Kendall Jenner, both famous Angelenos, to cheer alongside him at the Garden, in a post that has been viewed more than 23 million times. (That he is dating Kylie undoubtedly helped win them over.)A focus on celebrities at N.B.A. games is nothing new. For years, the Knicks have pushed the concept of the Garden’s Celebrity Row — their answer to the star-studded floor seats at Los Angeles Lakers games. But while Jack Nicholson spent decades holding court at Lakers games, and Drake has been a sideline fixture for the Toronto Raptors, the Knicks of Mr. Chalamet’s childhood often filled out the floor seats with lower-rung celebrities and entertainers who just happened to be in town. And Mr. Lee, of course.These days, Celebrity Row at the Garden delivers on its name. And in that group of A-listers, Mr. Chalamet has the fan credentials to hang with any of them.Evidence of Mr. Chalamet’s longstanding loyalty is apparent in social media posts from November 2010, around the time that Mr. Chalamet, then 14, was attending LaGuardia High School in Manhattan. He was not yet a star. His breakout role in the Showtime series “Homeland” was a couple of years away.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Al Trautwig, a Mainstay in the TV Booth at Madison Square Garden, Dies at 68

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      The Long Island native covered 16 Olympics, and had cameos in the movie “Cool Runnings” and the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”Al Trautwig, who brought sports fans along with him to New York’s Canyon of Heroes, champagne-doused locker rooms and the medal podium at the Olympics over a broadcast career that spanned more than three decades, died at his home on Long Island on Sunday. He was 68.His death was confirmed on Monday by his son, Alex Trautwig, who said that the cause was complications from cancer.In the largest U.S. media market, one where no detail is too minute for newspaper back pages and sports talk radio, Mr. Trautwig was a familiar face on New York Rangers and Knicks broadcasts for a generation on MSG Networks. He also covered Yankees games before the team created its own cable network in 2002.Al Trautwig, right, after the Yankees won the 2000 World Series.Steve Crandall/Getty ImagesThe son of Long Island had a wider audience: he covered 16 Olympics, most recently for NBC and focusing on gymnastics. His work earned him four national Emmys and more than 30 New York Emmys, his son said. He was also named New York Sportscaster of the Year in 2000.Mr. Trautwig’s death was announced earlier on Monday by Alan Hahn, an ESPN Radio host and a studio analyst for MSG Networks, who described him in a social media post as a mentor and teacher.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More