Ben Stiller Not Happy With Pat McAfee's Pregame Speech

Ben Stiller had a less than ideal trip to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Tuesday night. 

A diehard New York Knicks fan, Stiller has been following the team around throughout the NBA Playoffs. Prior to Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Knicks and Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, ESPN's Pat McAfee riled up the home crowd with some good-natured taunts at Stiller and his fellow celebrity Knicks fans.

“Indianapolis, Indiana, we got some bigwigs from the big city in the building. Spike Lee is here. Ben Stiller is here. Timothée Chalamet is here. Let’s send these sons of b-----s back to New York," McAfee said. 

Following the Pacers' 130-121 win to take a 3-1 series lead, Stiller called McAfee's speech "weird." 

"Yes. Weird. We were happy to be there and cheer our team and other than that Indy fans were awesome. #KNICKSIN7," Stiller said on X/Twitter.

A Boston Celtics fan responded to Stiller, saying McAfee meant his comments in good fun, which drew a follow-up from the Meet The Parents star.

"Appreciate that. Just wouldn’t not happen in NY." Stiller replied.

Not surprisingly, more than a few people called Stiller out for this claim, noting that fans at Madison Square Garden have been decidedly less than hospitable on occasion, including when some Knicks supporters threw trash on a Pacers fan outside the arena following a game last week.

To be fair, Stiller did acknowledge in a subsequent tweet that the trash-throwing was wrong. Hans Perez, the Indiana fan who was victimized by the garbage-tossing Knicks diehards, actually received a rousing welcome at last night's game in Indy.

Stiller will surely be courtside at MSG tomorrow night when the Knicks try to stave off elimination in Game 5. If they do that, they'll return to Indiana for Game 6 Saturday night.