According to Deadline, Knicks guard Tyler Kolek called Taylor Swift a "very performative" fan on a since-deleted NBA clip, and the team's rep responded with a statement thanking her for "many years" of support.
A point guard gets asked to name the fakest celebrity fan on an NBA 2K League video, says "maybe Taylor Swift," and the clip is deleted within hours, which means the Knicks' PR department already had a statement drafted. The statement reads like a template. "Many years." "Long history." "Incredibly appreciative." That is the phrasing you use for a vendor who delivers on time, not for the woman who has been photographed courtside since 2014 and married her boyfriend on your home floor.
ESPN has the detail that kills it. Miles McBride held up Ben Stiller and Tracy Morgan as examples of "solid" celebrity fans. Stiller and Morgan. A sports franchise's entire theory of authentic fandom is two men who have basically lived in New York since the Clinton administration.
The math is brutal. Swift has attended Knicks games for more than a decade. She was courtside for the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history, a 29-point one. She got married at MSG in July. "I don't know if I've seen her at any other games" is a man with a short attention span interrogating a woman with a calendar. And the organization's PR machine, which is not allowed to let its biggest fan be declared fake, responded the only way it knows how. A statement that says nothing and thanks her.
The clip is deleted. The statement is permanent. One of them will age better.
YOUR TURN: What is the entry requirement to be a real Knicks fan? Show up once? Or have never moved from New Jersey?
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