Pat McAfee has been public enemy number one in the eyes of Knicks fans after going at Ben Stiller, Spike Lee, and Timothée Chalamet during Game 4 of the series in Indianapolis. And it turns out, Knicks owner James Dolan seems to have McAfee on his radar as well.
After inciting Pacers fans to “send these sons of b*tches home”, referring to the trio of celebrity Knicks fans on Tuesday night, Ben Stiller urged McAfee to enter enemy territory by coming to Madison Square Garden for Game 5 of the series.
McAfee addressed this on Thursday’s edition of The Pat McAfee Show, informing Stiller that he wouldn’t be attending the game for a litany of reasons.
The biggest reason seems to be that Dolan wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of McAfee sitting courtside at the game, which McAfee alluded to on his show after looking into how to get tickets.
“Bummed out that I’m not going to be able to get to Madison Square Garden tonight,” said McAfee. “Bummed out. I respect the move. I have massive respect for the move. Especially because I didn’t know that’s who the people were going to ask. ‘Hey, I heard you might want to go to Madison Square Garden. You want me to look around for tickets?’ Sure, I’m not 100 percent sure I can make it. But if the opportunity arises, would love to hear about it or whatever. ‘Yeah, that’s gonna be a no, sir. Unless you want to buy off SeatGeek, which you certainly can.'”
McAfee then proceeded to look up the price of the courtside seat that he wanted, which was going to $171,000 on SeatGeek, a price that was simply too expensive for him to warrant going to the game.
“It’s $171,000? Yeah, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to make it. But once again, Ben Stiller, very cool. Ben Stiller was like ‘You are always invited, brother. We’ll sit together next time.’ Not tonight, obviously.”
Considering McAfee is making $17 million annually from ESPN for his work on The Pat McAfee Show, the sheer price of the ticket likely wasn’t the dealbreaker in him going to the game. Instead, he was likely a bit offended that Dolan didn’t want him in attendance sitting courtside, even if he did publicly say that he “respects the move” from Dolan.
What further backs this up was McAfee’s post on social media after the Knicks win over the Pacers on Thursday night, throwing what seems like a subtle jab at Dolan over his disapproval of being in attendance for the game.
“Congrats to the Knicks on a huge elimination game win,” wrote McAfee in a post on X. “I bet the Garden was electric tonight.. Would’ve been wild to experience.”
Fortunately, McAfee will again get the chance to see his Pacers potentially close out the Knicks in person when the series heads back to Indianapolis for Game 6 on Saturday night. But if the Knicks do again prevail and force a Game 7, don’t expect McAfee to be in attendance, as that game will be back in Madison Square Garden.