Watch an NBA game on TV and you’re bound to see celebrities sitting courtside. The TV cameras always seem to find them, to the point that some stars have become inextricably linked with with the teams that they follow. Nowhere is that more true than at Knicks games. There’s just something different about Madison Square Garden, and the Knicks have some real die-hard celebrity fans.
Advertisement
Spike Lee always needs to be the first one mentioned for his longtime support of the team, and actors like Ben Stiller and Tracy Morgan are frequently in attendance, as well. Quickly rising up the ranks in the past few years, though, is Timothée Chalamet.
Starring in movies like Dune, Wonka and A Complete Unknown, Chalamet has become one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood. He’s also a lifelong, true blue Knicks fan who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen and has proved his bona fides on many occasions. He can often be found courtside with his famous girlfriend, Kylie Jenner.
Chalamet’s new movie, Marty Supreme, will be released widely on Christmas Day, and in anticipation of that, plus the Knicks being on a roll and in the NBA Cup Finals, he appeared on Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony’s 7 PM in Brooklyn podcast this week. The hour-long conversation went to many places, but one of the more surreal topics was when Melo attempted to explain the difference between the projects and the hood to Chalamet.
Chalamet brought up a crazy story he had heard Ron Artest tell about a time he had seen a guy put a table leg through another guy’s chest during a YMCA pickup game (?!), and Melo jumped in to say that’s a project story, which is different from a hood story.
“Project stories is a totally different experience,” Melo explained. “You talkin’ ’bout livin’ in a box, you talk about livin’ within four walls, you talk about two-, three-bedroom apartments — six, seven people in an apartment, sharing food. It’s a different experience, this the type of s*** we used to do back in the day. You ride the top of the elevators, play football and tag on the roof, this is project s***.”
“It’s a maze when you’re in the projects,” he continued.
“Imagine you’re on one floor with a killer, the biggest drug dealer, the prettiest girl, you got the nicest football player, and you got the nicest basketball player. You got teachers, everybody is in this one building, so you have all of these different life experiences in this building,” Melo explained.
As Melo told it, the hood is different because it’s spread out, it’s on ground level. It’s in a neighborhood. The projects are a huge box with all of those experiences and types of people all together. “It’s all the same s***, it’s just that you livin’ vertical now,” he said of the projects.
“It’s a hood within a hood,” cohost Kazeem Famuyide chimed in. “It’s a prison, when you really think about it,” Melo said.
This was a fascinating conversation to have, especially with a Hollywood megastar who happens to be white. But Chalamet has the New York roots and more than enough street cred to hang in these circles. He was even bestowed with the hilarious “White Boy of the Year” award by Anthony Edwards a couple of months ago.
The projects vs. the hood was just one small part of this conversation, and fans of Chalamet’s movies, New York and/or the NBA will want to tune in to hear the rest of it.
