Watch: Taylor Swift Gives Hilarious Nod to Stevie Nicks While Attending Game 4 of the NBA Finals
You won’t find their names on the depth chart.
But, as Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Karl Anthony Towns and Co. tipped off against the San Antonio Spurs June 10 in Game 4 of the 2026 NBA finals, there was a different sort of starting five filling the famed seats of Madison Square Garden’s so-called celebrity row, where a pair of tickets for Game 3 on June 8 were auctioned off for $1 million.
Among those suiting up: Taylor Swift, Adam Sandler and Michael J. Fox.
Of course, Timothée Chalamet has been a fixture—with and without girlfriend Kylie Jenner—since his beloved New York Knicks began their run to claim the squad’s first NBA championship in more than five decades. And superfan Spike Lee has enjoyed a longer run in blue and orange than many of the team’s biggest names.
But how exactly does one get drafted for a courtside seat at the world’s most famous arena? Turns out, there’s a lot of ways to get in the game.
“The biggest misconception is that [Madison Square] Garden controls all the tickets around the court,” independent sports media consultant Joe Favorito, who headed up communications for the Knicks from 2001 to 2008, recently told ABC News. “They’re actually not.”
While they’re certainly captain of the squad, the NBA, select Hollywood studios and various brands also have a say in who hits the hardwood. (Though dedicated fans like Lee and actor Dustin Hoffman actually own their season tickets, with Lee joking to sports analyst Stephen A. Smith that he “looks stupid” for spending some $10 million on tickets.)
Favorito said that MSG has a “small cadre” of choice tickets that they’re able to distribute to various stars, with Jay-Z, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Mariska Hargitay, Ben Stiller and wife Christine Taylor among those who have huddled together during the playoff run.
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But, to stay in the game, stars have to be willing to play ball.
While they’re welcome to take advantage of the private entrance and enjoy the gourmet fare and alcohol on offer at MSG’s Suite 200, “They close down the hospitality stuff before the game starts—so people have to go to their seats,” Favorito told Front Office Sports. “It’s much more like a Broadway show than Yankee Stadium.”
And it’s considered rude to exit your seats before the curtain call.
After she and fellow model Irina Shayk strutted away before the end of a 2023 Knicks game, Emily Ratajkowski‘s subsequent request for Rangers tickets was blocked. An MSG spokesperson told Page Six that while Ratajkowski “was not offered comped tickets” for the NHL squad, which also competes in the arena, “she was offered, and is welcome, to buy great seats any time.”
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It’s also expected that stars will provide a valuable assist, posing for photos—”Sometimes I don’t even realize who’s sitting behind me until I turn around and photograph them and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Martha Stewart,'” Getty Images staff photographer Sarah Stier told ABC News—waving to fans on the Jumbotron and supporting the Garden of Dreams charity foundation.
As Liam Neeson put it to The New York Times in 2014, “You don’t get something for nothing, and if it helps the Garden if they see someone of my celebrity status—however high or low that is—I’ll put on my best Armani suit and go out there.”
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Another crucial play is not dunking on the squad’s leadership.
“They won’t give me tickets anymore,” longtime fan Ethan Hawke revealed on The Bill Simmons Podcast in 2018, sharing that he was cut after critcizing the firing of former coach Mike D’Antoni. “They’d always hook me up. And then I called up one time and they said, ‘That’ll be $7,800.’ I was like, ‘Why is this the first time you guys are charging me?’ And they said, ‘You should have thought of that before you went on the Jimmy Fallon show.'”
So perhaps Stiller has a smart game plan.
When current head coach Mike Brown admitted his wife Carolyn Brown was too shy to ask the Dodgeball actor to take a photo, he responded on X, “I am available for any picture any time with any member of Mike Brown’s immediate or extended family or friends. This man has taken us to the Finals. In his first year here.”
We’re guessing she’d get the same assist from the rest of the team’s other dedicated fans.
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