By JAKE FENNER
Published: 16:51 EDT, 28 May 2025 | Updated: 16:51 EDT, 28 May 2025
Former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee riled up the Indiana Pacers crowd on Tuesday night, but did so by trolling some celebrity New York Knicks fans. At least one of those fans took it the wrong way.
McAfee was handed a microphone to the Gainbridge Fieldhouse sound system with a short platform to try and hype up the crowd.
He did so by pointing out the attendance of three Knicks celebrity fans: filmmaker Spike Lee and actors Timothee Chalamet and Ben Stiller.
McAfee called each of them out - pausing so the crowd could boo each of them - and then finished by saying, 'Let's send these sons of b****es back to New York with their ears ringing.'
After the game had ended, Stiller reacted to McAfee's impassioned display on X, formerly Twitter: 'Yes. Weird. We were happy to be there and cheer our team and other than that Indy fans were awesome.'
In another tweet, the 'Night at the Museum' star said, '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.'
Pat McAfee just dropped a promo trolling Ben Stiller, Spike Lee and Timothée Chalamet for being Knicks fans pic.twitter.com/KVY3Mr6G1J
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod ð¸ð´ (@big_business_) May 28, 2025
Timothee Chalamet, Ben Stiller, and Spike Lee all made the trip from the Big Apple for the game
Spike Lee donned his typical orange and blue gear in enemy territory on Tuesday night
McAfee called all three of the celebrities out in a hype speech for the Pacers fans in the crowd
Stiller did not appear happy with the reception, saying McAfee was 'weird' for calling him out
After hearing about Stiller's reaction, McAfee addressed the moment on the latest episode of his ESPN talk show:
'Ben Stiller? I grew up watching Ben Stiller... It was just a cool moment, but it was very clear what I needed to do, what the assignment was as soon as I saw him,' McAfee said.
'Because these guys are all front row. They're a part of the show. They're getting things said to them, they're getting things said back. So yeah, 30, 45 seconds, decided to come up with something. Let's send these guys out here.
'How we're going to get there, didn't know. Sons of b****es is certainly not something that was all in the mind until I was in the middle of it. It's like, I feel like we got to bring a little bit of a hammer here.
'But we'd like to let them all know, mad respect for coming out. Mad respect for the amount of support they're showing the New York Knicks also. All love.'
McAfee said that Chalamet knew about the former punter's schtick after appearing on ESPN's 'College GameDay' last season.'
McAfee explained that while Chalamet enjoyed it and displayed a 's**t-eating grin' during the hype speech, 'I don't think Ben Stiller knows. And Ben Stiller did not love it, from what I read... He said it was weird, some people were calling me classless in this entire thing.
'It's like, hey, it wasn't on TV. The assignment was, hey, we blew the game in the fourth quarter in Game 3. I knew that. We got the lead right now going in, let's make sure we turn this s**t up a little bit... I didn't even think about there being a negative reaction, which, once again, is how I find myself sometimes.'
McAfee said he had 'mad respect' for Chalamet, Lee, and Stiller and he 'didn't even think about a negative reaction' to the speech he gave, which was only seen in the arena
McAfee, who brought his WWE boss Triple H to the game, watched the Pacers pull out a win
In addition to the trio of Chalamet, Lee, and Stiller, other celebrities supporting the Knicks at the game included rapper 50 Cent.
Celebs at the game without any team attachment included Real Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni, country singer Jelly Roll, and rapper RUSS.
Lee, Stiller, and Chalamet were indeed sent back to New York, with the Knicks falling 130-121 to the Pacers on Tuesday.
The loss puts the Knicks in a likely insurmountable 3-1 hole that no NBA team has crawled out of in five years.
Indiana was led by a pair of 30-point performances from Tyrese Haliburton (32) and Pascal Siakam (30) in addition to a strong 20-point outing from bench guard Bennedict Mathurin.
The Knicks' Jalen Brunson led the team with 31 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had a 24 point, 12 rebound double-double, and OG Anunoby had 22 points of his own.
Game 5 takes place at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.