The New York Knicks, in the opinion of one of their most illustrious fans, John McEnroe, are a secular religion. Almost everything that surrounds the New York team is a matter of faith, starting with their always renewed messianic confidence that they are in a position to compete for an NBA ring that they have not won since 1973, 50 years ago. Emily Ratajkowski has been the latest to prove to what extent sports idolatries should be taken very seriously.
It happened last November 25. That day, the London model and actress raised in California went to Madison Square Garden in the company of fellow model Irina Shayk to attend a promising game: the Knicks against the Miami Heat, current champions of the Eastern Conference. Ratajkowski and Shayk sat, of course, in the ccelebrity row (Celebrity Row), the handful of coveted seats at the foot of the slopes where McEnroe, Spike Lee, Michael J. Fox, Whoopi Goldberg, Anne Hathaway, Martha Stewart, Aaron Rogers, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock or Ethan Hawke.
Although Emily has been frequenting Madison for several years, her attitude on this occasion was not up to the task. The two models behaved like a pair of influencers on a promotional tour, turning his back on the game on multiple occasions to film live and take photos. But the supreme outrage, in the fans' opinion, came when they chose to leave the pavilion a couple of minutes before the end of the game. At that point, the Knicks were about to close a 21-point deficit to end up obtaining one of the most exciting victories of the season.
An untimely withdrawal
While Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle and Immanuel Quickley were fighting for money on the court before the enthusiasm of the stands, Irina and Emily left deserted a pair of chairs whose price, when they go on sale, ranges between $6,000 and $10,000 during the regular season. He returned days later to watch the game against the Memphis Grizzlies, but when in mid-December, Ratajkowski returned to address the administrators of the celebrity row from the Garden and asked them for preferential and free seats to see, this time, the New Rangers, of the professional ice hockey league. The request was denied, which surprised the star.
In later days, media such as Outkick They would go so far as to claim that Ratajkowski would have been prohibited from accessing the discretionary VIP seats due to what the venue's owner, James Dolan, considers a very unexemplary use of a privilege. Mike Gunzelman, author of the article, allowed himself the luxury of admonishing the model with arguments of a certain populism: “Once again, it is clear that famous people are normal human beings except on the many occasions when they stop being so (…) . The fact that you are also, in some way, part of the show does not give you the right to enter and leave the venue as if the match being played there had no importance. No, Emily, no matter how pathetic the Knicks games are sometimes, you have to stay until the end, like us commoners who occupy the other 300 rows do.” As I said, a religious ceremony is not abandoned prematurely with Olympian disdain. The rest of the parishioners will not willingly tolerate you exhibiting your insulting lack of faith.
Ratajkowski wanted to hide behind an alleged alarm related to the health of her two-year-old son, Sylvester Apollo Bear, but the string of photos with Shayk that was taken around the stadium after his untimely defection did not leave her in a good light. Brian Gallagher points out, The Daily Mail, that Emily “has not been prohibited from entering the Garden”, but she has been “exhorted” to pay for her tickets, like everyone else. That is, he has stripped her of her status as high priestess of the Knicks cult to turn her, once again, into a mere mortal.
There is no room for everyone here
The NBA has a peculiar relationship with its celebrity row. All teams are interested in the sheen of glamor that comes with a large VIP support in the stands, but only two teams have made it one of their main marketing arguments: the Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Los Angeles team is the most successful in the NBA with the permission of the Boston Celtics, it has in its ranks the supreme athlete of the last couple of decades, Lebron James, and has never lacked the support of a Hollywood elite for which the Basketball is usually the favorite sport, from Mark Wahlberg to Tobey Maguire, Kanye West, Leo DiCaprio, Zac Efron, Jennifer Garner, Timothy Chalamet, Tom Cuise, Drew Barrymore or Justin Timberlake, without forgetting his number one fan, Jack Nicholson, who has been suffering on the court for decades without losing his smile.
Less obvious is the case of the New Yorkers, a rather modest team in historical terms, with only a couple of very distant titles to their credit, unable even to win the ring in the long period, between 1985 and 2000, in which they counted on their ranks with one of the best centers in history, Patrick Ewing. But, of course, they are the Manhattan team, they play in the historic Garden, they are as genuinely New York as Little Italy cannoli, bagels or pastrami sandwiches and they are, once again, the object of adoration by an enthusiastic fan base. . It is enough for them to have a high-level player on their payroll, like Brunson and Randle right now or the formidable acrobat Jeremy Lin in his day, for expectations to skyrocket.
Walt Frazier, the franchise player who took them to the top in 1970 and 1973, explained six years ago, in an interview with ICON, that the Knicks, despite their often frustrating career, almost always far from absolute excellence, are more “ a feeling and a collective identity” than a basketball team. It is usually the argument of teams with more mystique and history than true achievements, but Knicks fans believe in it wholeheartedly. This explains that any indication of green shoots, such as this year's balance of 16 wins and 12 losses, which predicts that the team will have very serious options of, at the very least, getting into the play off, be received with the usual fervor and serve to make the Knicks fashionable.
Elusive criteria
Last spring, Kristen Fleming explained in the New York Post that the Garden administrators were being overwhelmed by the very high number of requests for the celebrity row that they were receiving. After a couple of seasons in which Spike Lee and John McEnroe had to fly the VIP banner almost alone, Tracy Morgan, Jessica Alba, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jerry Ferrara and Roger Federer began to compete for privileged seats with former players. like Carmelo Anthony or Frazier himself.
In these periods when the celebrity row becomes once again the red carpet of the most exquisite New York, the celebrities who aspire to make a place for themselves on it are subjected to a casting whose criteria are discretionary and not entirely transparent. Of course, as Dan Feldman explained in NBCSports, Everyone must go through a procedure that is activated as soon as they request this type of ticket for the first time. Those who receive a response gain the status of “friends” of the Garden and can, consequently, enter the pavilion through reserved access and freely use catering rooms, guest stands and VIP areas.
From there, a committee of wise men evaluates the extent to which each of these “friends” is famous enough for their presence at the foot of the court to be considered more of an “asset” for the venue than an act of courtesy. Some of them are given the opportunity to sit in the celebrity row at least once to check what the impact is among the audience when the celebrity cam. One of the last to submit to the public's verdict was Timothée Chalamet, whose first presence among the chosen ones was greeted with fervor. Chalamet even had the detail of modestly covering his face when he pointed the camera at him… with a Knicks cap.
In any case, the invitation to the most coveted line in American professional sports becomes a contract that also entails obligations, such as participating in the interview round that occurs during breaks and dead times, interacting naturally with the rest of the celebritiestransmit a friendly and positive image, be friendly with the rest of the public and support the home team with a certain fervor and, of course, stay until the end, especially when the game is tied.
After all, whoever sits in the celebrity row during a Knicks game he is joining a whole lineage of luxury fans that has included Lou Reed, Rihanna, John Stewart, Liam Neeson, Howard Stern, David Duchovny, Chloe Sevigny, Katie Holmes, 50 Cent, Emmy Rossum , Woody Allen, Howard Stern, Jerry Senfield, Woody Allen or Alicia Keys. Even Donald Trump was a regular at the Manhattan team's games before his confrontation with the main stars of the NBA regarding the Black Lives Matter turned him into a firm detractor of basketball. Sitting so close to the court in such a setting and with such a background is, as Stan Lee would say, one of those great powers that imply great responsibilities. That's the logic that Emily Ratajkowski didn't quite understand. And that is why she has lost one of the most exclusive privileges that the world of sports grants.
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