After the Knicks’ Game 4 win over the Spurs in the NBA Finals on June 10, filmmaker Spike Lee said he’d trade an Oscar—or even pass on casting Denzel Washington again—if it helps the team win another championship.
By June 10, the Knicks weren’t just fighting back—they were fighting for a kind of story Spike Lee says he’s been living in for decades.
In the aftermath of New York’s epic Game 4 victory against the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. Lee revealed to CNN that he’s willing to trade away parts of his own career to see the Knicks capture another championship. The talk wasn’t about fandom from a distance. Lee. 69. has held season tickets since “Patrick Ewing’s rookie year. ” which he says was 1985. and he’s been a fixture at Madison Square Garden for decades.
“I got two (Oscars),” Lee said. “I would trade the honorary one and keep the one for screenwriting for ‘BlacKkKlansman.’”
He didn’t stop there. “I’d trade that in a New York second,” he added.
Lee won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in February 2019 for “BlacKkKlansman.” Before that. in November 2015. he received a lifetime achievement award from the Academy when he was presented with the honorary Oscar. Now, those trophies are positioned—at least in Lee’s telling—as negotiable chips in a different kind of final.
There’s also a second possibility on the table: film collaborations. Lee said he’d be willing to pass on featuring longtime collaborator Denzel Washington in another movie, but only if it meant the Knicks take it all. Lee framed it as a trade-off tied to timing and priorities.
“Well, Denzel said publicly, like, that he only has two more films. So, I don’t know, I have no clue, what that looks like, but Denzel understands why. He said already he’s retiring,” Lee said.
A lifelong Knicks fan, Lee says his attachment to the team goes back to the beginning of modern basketball history in his own life. He says he’s been at MSG since he was a child, and that his season-ticket streak has been steady since 1985.
His emotional investment has long been public, too. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inducted the famed director into its “SuperFans” club in 2024—more than 50 years after he says he witnessed the Knicks win their first NBA championship.
For Lee, the current run isn’t just another season. He believes the team is in reach of the kind of moment he’s waited for for much of his adult life.
Lee said he “can’t even describe” what it would mean personally to see the Knicks win again, but he’s already bracing for the reaction.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about this. Am I gonna cry? Going to be tears of joy, but I don’t…,” Lee said. “All I can say is I’m gonna be bugging out. I’m gonna be bugging.”
He doesn’t frame that feeling as optional. “This is our moment. We will not be denied,” Lee said. “53 years since (the) New York Knicks have won an NBA championship. That’s five decades (and) three years.”
“How long? Too long. How long? Too long,” he added.
The Knicks’ Game 4 comeback against the Spurs on June 10 gave Lee something he’s chasing in more ways than one: a chance to turn decades of waiting into a single, unforgettable finish—one he says he’d prioritize over even the most decorated parts of his own awards shelf.
Spike Lee Knicks NBA Finals Spurs Game 4 Oscars BlacKkKlansman Denzel Washington Madison Square Garden championship