Timothée Chalamet declared in San Antonio on Saturday night that he would 'way rather' see the New York Knicks win the NBA championship than take home an Academy Award, moments after his beloved team sealed a historic title and ended a 53-year wait for fans.
Speaking courtside to ESPN after the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs to clinch the 2026 NBA Finals 4–1, the three-time Oscar nominee grinned into the camera and said: 'Come on, baby. Knicks are champions, baby.'
This was not just any celebrity soundbite from courtside. The Knicks' victory closed the book on one of the longest and most painful droughts in American sport, their last NBA title having come in 1973. They had not even reached the Finals since 1999, when they also lost to the Spurs in five games. For a generation of New Yorkers raised on grainy footage and what-ifs, the championship was something close to myth.
Timothée Chalamet Swaps Oscars Dream For Knicks Glory
The news came after a season in which Chalamet had become an almost permanent fixture at Madison Square Garden, his courtside appearances as much a part of the Knicks' playoff run as the noise of the crowd. The 30-year-old, who grew up in New York, has long been open about his devotion to the team, but this spring he dialled it up a notch. He skipped this year's Met Gala to watch the Knicks' post-season push.
“WAY RATHER THIS THAN THE OSCARS!” 🔥
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 14, 2026
Timothée Chalamet hyped for the Knicks title 🏆 pic.twitter.com/DL94Aw6V9b
Chalamet's Oscars résumé is serious stuff. He has been nominated three times for best actor: in 2018 for Call Me by Your Name, in 2025 for A Complete Unknown, and again this year for Marty Supreme. Few actors his age have been embraced so eagerly by the Academy. Yet on Saturday night, sprayed in champagne and hoarse from shouting, he treated Hollywood's highest prize as a distant second to the Knicks finally getting over the line.
Inside the Knicks locker room, Chalamet joined the post-title ritual, celebrating with players as champagne flew. ESPN footage showed a staffer offering him a pair of protective goggles, the standard kit for anyone within range of the bubbly. He waved them away, laughing: 'I don't deserve them. I'm not an athlete.' He added, a little self-mockingly: 'Usually, I have a stunt double do that.'
Timothée Chalamet gets sprayed with champagne by Knicks players in the locker room. pic.twitter.com/PxWksUbSka
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) June 14, 2026
That half-joke summed up the mood. For once, the actors and comedians and global pop stars orbiting the Knicks were just extras in someone else's show.
Knicks Title Win Puts Hollywood In The Shade
It can be recalled that Chalamet was far from the only famous face riding this wave. The title-clinching game drew a travelling troupe of celebrity Knicks loyalists to San Antonio, including director Spike Lee, comedian Tracy Morgan and actor Ben Stiller. Back in New York, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay and Taylor Swift were among those who had watched earlier Finals games from courtside seats.
Stiller captured the surreal edge of the night when he told reporters he felt 'as happy as I've ever felt' after the win. Hargitay had already called the Knicks' dramatic comeback in Game 4 'the greatest night of my life' after her wedding. It sounded over the top, but if you've waited half a century for your team to lift a trophy, maybe it isn't.
On the floor, the story belonged to Knicks captain Jalen Brunson, who poured in 45 points in Game 5 and was named Finals MVP. Speaking to ABC, he appeared slightly stunned by the scale of it all. 'I have no words,' he said. 'I don't know what I'm feeling. I'm in awe, I don't know. Whenever someone counted us out, we found a way to come back and do something about it.'
The impact in New York was immediate and noisy. As the final buzzer sounded in Texas, fans poured into the streets around Madison Square Garden and across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Car horns blared into the early hours. Fireworks cracked over rooftops. The familiar chant of 'Let's go Knicks' rolled through public spaces that have spent decades hosting quiet disappointment every spring.
Public watch parties during the Finals had already signalled the pent-up demand. Around 5,000 fans gathered in Bryant Park for earlier games, forming a sea of blue and orange in the middle of midtown. Now, with the title secured, those crowds felt vindicated. This was not just a sports win. It was a rare civic jolt for a city more used to arguing about rent and rubbish collection.
New York's mayor, Zohran Mamdani, moved quickly to formalise the party. Posting on X, he announced a ticker-tape parade next week, offering few details beyond a brisk: 'Parade. Thursday. Manhattan.' For a fanbase that has had more than half a century to practise patience, that was enough.
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) June 14, 2026
And somewhere in that parade, if his schedule allows, there will almost certainly be an Oscar-nominated actor who has already made his priorities crystal clear. For Timothée Chalamet this week, the Knicks parade is the only red carpet that matters.
