Ben Stiller wasn’t about to take Pat McAfee’s wrestling-style jabs lying down.
On Tuesday, after the ESPN host and WWE personality stirred up the Indiana crowd during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals by calling out the celebrity Knicks fans in attendance — including Stiller, Spike Lee and Timothée Chalamet — the actor and filmmaker decided to flip the script.
The hubbub all started during an early break in the fourth quarter as the Pacers were leading 111–96 and McAfee was invited to take the mic at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Pacers home arena in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“Indianapolis, Indiana, we got some bigwigs from the big city in the building,” McAfee told the crowd. “Spike Lee is here. Ben Stiller is here. Timothée Chalamet is here. Let’s send these sons of b****** back to New York.”
Pat McAfee hypes the crowd up:
“Spike Lee is here. Ben Stiller is here. Timothee Chalamet is here. Let’s send these SOBs back to New York.” pic.twitter.com/2nZbsl6aIm
— Alex Golden (@AlexGoldenNBA) May 28, 2025
Alex Golden, an NBA analyst and podcast co-host of “Setting the Pace: A Pacers Podcast,” shared the moment in a video posted to X — and Stiller definitely had an opinion on the matter.
Using the hashtag “#KNICKSIN7,” Stiller responded, “Yes. Weird. We were happy to be there and cheer our team and other than that Indy fans were awesome.”
Then, in his own post to X, Stiller dared McAfee to face him in person during Game 5 at the Garden, sharing a video clip from “The Pat McAfee Show,” and captioning it, “Come to game 5 Pat!!”
Come to game 5 Pat!! 😂 https://t.co/RFalO4cUx1
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) May 28, 2025
In his defense, McAfee said that “a guy with camera” approached him in the fourth quarter and asked him to hype the crowd. So, with about 30-45 seconds, McAfee looked around, spotted the celebrities “all front row” — and just went for it.
“Sons of b****** is certainly not something that was on the mind until I was in the middle of it,” McAfee explained on his show. “I feel like we got to bring a little bit of a hammer here, but we’d like to let them all know — mad respect for coming out, mad respect for the amount of support they show the New York Knicks.”
And while the back-and-forth added some playful tension to the series, it ended on a good-natured note.
On Thursday, McAfee posted to X that he would “not be at Madison Square Garden tonight,” adding, “We appreciate you @BenStiller.”
Stiller replied warmly, posting, “Next time — always welcome, Pat. We can do courtside together!! Hoping we bring it back to Indy xxx Respect xx,” punctuated with two Knicks-themed hearts and a fist bump emoji.
