Spike Lee Reveals Top Knicks Villains

During the New York Knicks' postseason, sometimes it's hard to do the right thing.

Renowned film director Spike Lee is ready to take his usual courtside side at Madison Square Garden for the Knicks' latest playoff trip, which tips off this weekend against the Detroit Pistons. In recognition of the coming festivities, Lee appeared on Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony's Wave original web series "7PM in Brooklyn" and unveiled his list of his greatest on-floor adversaries.

Lee's first entries were perhaps expected, as he called out Reggie Miller and Michael Jordan, all of whom have planted sour Garden memories in their storied tenures. He also mentioned LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, even if their time against the Knicks didn't feature much postseason animosity.

The mention of modern Garden villain Trae Young, however, pushed Lee over the top: Young's 2021 takeover of MSG during the Knicks' first playoff appearance in eight years was harrowing enough but Lee was particularly peeved about the Atlanta Hawks star's infamous December dice roll, one that Young mimed after defeat the New York for a spot in the Las Vegas-based portions of the NBA Cup in-season tournament.

"He's a villain ... and he plays into that," Lee told Anthony and his co-host Kazeem Famuyide. "Nobody did nothing [about the dice roll]! ... You know what the Knicks said? They said 'we didn't see him do that.' I don't believe that ... That would not have happened with some other Knick teams. Xavier McDaniel? [Charles] Oakley, them guys? On the logo, at midcourt! Nobody did nothing!"

Fortunately for the Knicks — or unfortunately, if their all-time record against Young is anything to go by — the earliest they would face the Hawks would be the Eastern Conference Finals. Atlanta, in fact, isn't even locked into the mainstream tournament, as it'll need to defeat the Miami Heat on Friday night (7 p.m. ET, TNT) to secure the mere right to face the top-ranked Cleveland Cavaliers in round one.

Even the Hawks' lack of success, however, is of no comfort to Lee, who remarked that such antics "shouldn't be forgotten." For his part, Anthony said that he "f***s with" Young for his humorous antics but couldn't fully tolerate it because he had the audacity to pull the stunt on MSG's midcourt logo, which the newly-minted Hall-of-Famer referred to as "New York's flag."

"That's disrespect. That's how I look it at it: that's my flag right there, you're stepping on my flag," Anthony said. "He had the courage to do that. But, nah, you can't stomp on my flag. You can't bang on my flag like that."

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