Ben Stiller has thoughts on the “weird” comments Pat McAfee directed at him and fellow celebs during the most recent Knicks-Pacers matchup.
McAfee, a former punter for the Indianapolis Colts, briefly helmed the mic at Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
He made sure to single out the celebrity Knicks fans in attendance, and the crowd responded with loud boos.
“We got some bigwigs from the big city in the building. Spike Lee is here. Ben Stiller is here. Timothée Chalamet is here,” the sports analyst said, as the crowd loudly booed each name.
“Let’s send these sons of bitches back to New York with their ears bleeding,” McAfee added, to rapturous applause and cheers from the crowd.
Stiller seemingly didn’t feel the comments were as applause-worthy, as he responded to video of McAfee’s comments on Tuesday night.
“Yes. Weird. We were happy to be there and cheer our team and other than that Indy fans were awesome,” he tweeted on X.
In another tweet, Stiller got deep when he revisited McAfee’s comments.
Nathaniel S. Butler via Getty Images
“It’s ok. He must be playing around — if it’s an actual point of view it seems a little anachronistic or cliche? Like we are “ big city celebs” and we shouldn’t be there in the heartland? 😂Again, everyone we met was awesome and incredibly cool,” he wrote.
McAfee later responded to Stiller’s take on his show on Wednesday, and gave his side of the story.
“I did not know I was getting a microphone ― would like that to be known,” McAfee shared, adding that it was the fourth quarter when he was approached by a camera guy and an emcee with a mic.
As soon as he figured out he was being asked to speak, McAfee said he started scanning the crowd.
“I see Spike Lee down there literally covered up in like a babushka,” he said while laughing, adding that he spotted Chalamet and Stiller next.
Despite growing up watching Stiller, McAfee said but it was “very clear what I needed to do” and what the “assignment was.”
McAfee joked he didn’t know the “sons of bitches” comment was going to come out until he was in the middle of speaking, but swears it’s now “all love.”
“Felt like hmm, we gotta bring a little bit of a hammer here. But would like to let them all know ― mad respect for coming out. Mad amount of respect for the love they’re showing the New York Knicks. And also, all love.”
He did hear, though, that Stiller “did not love it” when he made the comments.
“He said it was ‘weird,’ you know. Some people were calling me classless in this entire thing. It’s like ― this wasn’t on TV,” McAfee said. “The assignment was, ’Hey, we blew this thing in the fourth quarter of Game 3 … let’s make sure we turn this shit up a little bit.”
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