After the Knicks’ long-awaited NBA Finals title win over the Spurs, Stephen A. Smith pushed for a championship-ring tribute for longtime fan Spike Lee, praising him as the one Knicks supporter who deserves it most.
Saturday night in New York felt like a release—one that had been building for 53 years. When the Knicks finally beat the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 to win their long-awaited NBA Finals title, the city erupted, and Stephen A. Smith made no attempt to stay neutral.
Smith celebrated emotionally, then turned his attention to the man he believes should get the next big moment of recognition: Spike Lee.
“I completely support this for Spike Lee. No Knicks’ fan deserves this more than him,” Smith posted on the social media website X, formerly Twitter.
The idea isn’t just fan chatter. Rumors had swirled that the famed movie director and Academy Award winner deserves a championship ring—something Smith is now publicly backing as the right kind of tribute.
Lee’s Knicks history has the kind of highs and lows that don’t fit neatly into a single highlight reel. He has personal “high and low” Knicks moments that extend back to the heartbreaks that shaped the franchise’s decades-long search for the top. He sat courtside watching Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls eliminate his Knicks multiple times in the playoffs.
The painful patterns didn’t end there. Lee later watched Reggie Miller lead the Indiana Pacers to a similar fate, and he even witnessed the constant coaching changes during the 2000s—featuring the failed Derek Fisher, Isaiah Thomas, and Mike D’Antoni experiments.
Now, after the Knicks claimed the Larry O’Brien Trophy, Lee is in a different place. The director even channeled his well-known 1980s character Mars Blackmon for a new ad: featuring Blackmon calling Jordan after the Knicks win.
The cultural crossover has kept moving. Miller even buried the hatchet with Lee after the Knicks claimed the Larry O’Brien Trophy, and Lee released new Air Jordan 3 shoes clad in Knicks colors.
For Smith, it all points to one simple conclusion: when the Knicks finally got the championship, the right fan to match that moment is the one who has lived every era beside the team.
New York’s championship parade is set for Thursday, and Lee is more than likely to appear—possibly with new championship attire waiting in the wings by then.
Stephen A. Smith Spike Lee New York Knicks NBA Finals San Antonio Spurs Larry O'Brien Trophy Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls Reggie Miller Indiana Pacers Mars Blackmon Air Jordan 3 championship parade