Spike Lee names his Top 5 New York Knicks villains: "He rolled the dice and nobody did nothing"

Academy Award-winning film director Spike Lee first became a New York Knicks season ticket holder after the Knickerbockers drafted Patrick Ewing first overall in the 1985 NBA Draft. Since then, he's been a regular at The Garden and has seen every opponent the Kicks have faced at the Mecca.
During a recent appearance on Carmelo Anthony's "7PM in Brooklyn" podcast, Lee enumerated his Top 5 all-time Knicks villains, and Spike's answers did not disappoint.
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"You got Reggie Miller. You got Mike. You heard it. That double-nickel game, goddamn!" began Lee.
He rolled the dice
Miller's name coming out of Spike's mouth first was no surprise. It was toward Spike where Reggie made the iconic 'choke' gesture after dropping 25 points in the 4th quarter of a 1994 playoff game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Then as he mentioned, MJ's double-nickel game is one of the best performances by an opponent at the Mecca.
Spike also mentioned LeBron James and Kobe Bryant before seemingly running out of names. But when Melo and his co-host Kazeem Fayumide asked him about a current villain named Trae Young, who plays for the Atlanta Hawks, the "He Got Game" film director nodded in approval and became animated while recalling Young's celebration after the Hawks beat the Knicks in the quarterfinals of the 2024 In-Season Tournament.
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"He's a villain ... and he plays into that," Lee told Anthony. "He rolled the dice and Nobody did nothing! ... You know what the Knicks said? They said 'We didn't see him do that.' I don't believe that ... No, that would not have happened with some other Knick teams. Xavier McDaniel? Oakley? Them guys? On the logo, at midcourt! Nobody did nothing!"
It all started in the 2021 Playoffs
Ice Trae first earned the ire of Knicks fans when his Hawks faced the Knicks in the 2021 NBA playoffs. In his first-ever playoff appearance in Game 1, Young scored 32 points, issued 10 assists, and grabbed 7 rebounds. He hit a running shot with 0.9 left in the game to beat the Knicks and then told the Garden crowd to 'be quiet' after they were chanting "Fu** Trae Young" throughout the game.
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The beef between Knicks fans and Young continued throughout that series. But Trae had the last laugh when hit a 32-foot 3-pointer with 43 seconds left to ice the game. He bowed at center court and waved goodbyes to the stunned MSG crowd. The hostility continued after that but it wasn't until "Ice Trae" rolled the dice to signify his team advancing to the Las Vegas semifinals of the IST that Knicks fans like Spike rekindled the hate again.
But as Lee said, it wasn't so much about Young disrespecting the Knicks logo but about the team doing nothing about it. It can be recalled that all Knicks captain Jalen Brunson had to say after the game was if they didn't want to see Trae do what he did, they should've won the game. That reply was politically correct. However, for die hard Knicks fans like Lee and Melo, the players shouldn't tolerate invaders trampling the 'flag of New York.'
Related: Spike Lee got a hilarious answer from Michael Jordan when he asked MJ why he was chosen to do his breakout commercial: "Motherfu**** you were wearing my shoes"

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