Jared Schwartz
Add Kelly Oubre versus celebrities as another matchup to watch during the Knicks-76ers first-round playoff series.
The 76ers forward took a moment on Friday to chirp Madison Square Garden’s vaunted Celebrity Row before Game 1 at the arena on Saturday.
“They’re gonna give celebrities those $100,000 [worth of] free tickets just to be there and not care about the game,” Oubre said. “That’s what they do.”
Oubre does sort of have a point.
Page Six reported in December that the Rangers denied model Emily Ratajkowski more complimentary tickets after she and fellow model Irina Shayk left the Knick’s 100-98 comeback win over the Heat on Nov. 24 early.
The Knicks had been trailing big, and the two left before the Knicks mounted a fierce comeback.
The Rangers and Knicks both play at Madison Square Garden and share an owner in James Dolan.
Still, there are plenty of die-hard celebrity Knicks fans who regularly attend games and watch from Celebrity Row. And they weren’t thrilled with Oubre.
“Are the Knicks in the playoffs?” legendary comedian Ben Stiller sarcastically wrote on X, poking fun at Oubre’s assertion the celebrities aren’t actually fans.
“Oh boy is this dude mistaken hahaha,” actor Jerry Ferrara, best known for starring in “Entourage,” wrote on X. “I think this is code for ‘that place is gonna be the loudest place I’ve ever heard in my career.’”
Ferrara added in another post: “We show up and are loud when the team is bad. Can’t imagine many people showed up during the process.”
Oubre’s comment certainly wasn’t the first questionable statement coming from Philadelphia.
Backup center Paul Reed said earlier in the week on the “Run it Back” podcast that the 76ers “wanted the Knicks matchup, of course. That’s the easier team.”
By winning their play-in game against the Heat on Wednesday, the 76ers got a matchup with the Knicks rather than the Celtics.
The Knicks, for their part, have abstained from trash talk before the series gets underway.
The celebrities are doing it for them.
“To the Sixers players. Please please please keep doing your interviews and talking your s–t,” Ferrara posted. “We all know you have a rich playoff history the last 10 years. … This is fun! I usually just want to win at all costs. But the Sixers role players chirping in a dumb ass way is gonna add to the series.”
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