Two-time Academy Award winner Spike Lee is a dedicated supporter of the New York Knicks and often sits courtside at Madison Square Garden. As the Knicks faced the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, he revealed the high price he would pay to see his team win a championship. Lee stated, ahead of Game 5, that he would be willing to give up one of his Oscars for the Knicks to clinch the NBA Finals.

The Knicks have not secured a championship since 1973, and their last Finals appearance was in 1999, a time well before Lee’s successful filmmaking career began.

“I would give up an Academy Award, Oscar, for the Knicks to win a championship,” Lee shared on Inside the NBA. “I have two already.”

Former NBA MVP Charles Barkley humorously countered Lee’s proposal, quipping, “Well, you’re gonna keep ’em.”

Lee won an Academy Award in 2019 for his screenplay for BlacKkKlansman and received an Honorary Academy Award in 2016. He earned a Student Academy Award in 1983 through a short film for his master’s thesis at New York University. Recently, he attended Game 4 of the Knicks-Pacers series where former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee called out New York’s celebrity fans, suggesting Indiana supporters send them “back to New York with their ears ringing” during a raucous address to the crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

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