The world is still drenched in blue and orange after the Knicks made their 53-year championship drought a mere distant memory by clinching the title against the Spurs in an apparently glizzy-free environment this weekend. Naturally, as renewed Knicks mania continues, a resurfaced clip of Timothée Chalamet detailing his earliest memories as a longtime disciple for the New York franchise is making the rounds again.
In the clip, seen below and taken from the three-time Oscar nominee’s 7PM in Brooklyn interview from December of last year, Chalamet compares what it felt like as a younger and scrappier Knicks fan with the many Knicks-related privileges his superstardom has given him as an adult.
“That’s why I don’t cherish anything more in my new life than my Garden access,” he said, recalling what it was like “growing up and waiting for those tickets.”
This led to the Dune franchise star looking back on how he spent the money he earned from booking a Disney commercial as a child actor, with mentions of LeBron James and Amar'e Stoudemire also tucked into his recollection.
“The summer I was 12 years old or 13 years old, I booked a Disney commercial because I was a child actor, so I made a couple thousand dollars,” he said. “I bought the cheapest season tickets I could find, thinking LeBron was coming to the Knicks. I thought, okay, I’m gonna flip these for double or three times. Then, he didn't come but Amar'e came, so I was basically able to sell ‘em at face value. … I grew up on 43rd and 9th, so I’d run down to the Garden. I would scalp ‘em to the scalpers. They were $25 a ticket. I would go to as many games as possible.”
Chalamet went on to credit his grandmother with first initiating him into Knicks fandom, saying “that’s what turned me on to them” before using the opportunity to take a playful dig at those who instead pull for the Brooklyn Nets.
“If you live in New York, you are a Knicks fan,” he said. “My grandma had a New York Giants teddy bear and a New York Jets teddy bear, but she only had a New York Knicks teddy bear, you know? No disrespect to Nets fans. … Yeah, if you're a Nets fan, you should be on, like, a government list or something. There’s something wrong with you.”
Chalamet is a fixture at Knicks games, joining Spike Lee and other dyed-in-the-wool fans for key moments across the team’s recent playoffs run. Also regularly in the mix was Jordyn Woods’s orange clutch, widely considered a good luck charm for the team this time around.
When the 2026-2027 NBA season kicks off later this year, Chalamet will be in promo mode for the third Dune film, meaning we can almost certainly expect to see him at a slew of additional Knicks games. If he does indeed go full villain for the rollout, as we previously argued he should, all the better.
