Timothée Chalamet did not hide where his loyalties were on Saturday night. Courtside at the Frost Bank Center, he told SportsCenter he would “way rather” have a New York Knicks championship than an Oscar, then shouted, “Way rather this than the Oscars! Come on, baby!” as the celebration rolled on.
The Knicks had just beaten the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 to claim the NBA title, ending a 53-year wait for another championship. Chalamet followed the moment into the locker room, where he joined the team’s celebration and added, “Knicks are champions, baby!”
That reaction carried extra weight because Chalamet is not speaking from the outside. He has been nominated three times at the Oscars, all in the best actor category, with nods for Call Me by Your Name in 2018, A Complete Unknown in 2025 and Marty Supreme in 2026. Still, when the choice was put in plain terms, he picked the Knicks without hesitation. The answer landed as the team was finishing a title run that had not been matched since 1973, when the Knicks last beat the Los Angeles Lakers for a championship.
Inside the locker room, the celebration turned into something less polished and more revealing. An off-camera voice asked whether he wanted goggles to protect his eyes from champagne showers, and Chalamet brushed the offer aside, saying he did not deserve them because he was not an athlete and usually had a stunt double do that. The line worked because it cut through the celebrity gloss; he was thrilled, but he was also careful not to pretend he belonged on the court.
That mix of devotion and self-awareness helps explain why his presence at the Garden has drawn attention all through the finals. Chalamet has been a courtside staple during the run, alongside other familiar faces such as Spike Lee, Larry David, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Mariska Hargitay, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan and Taylor Swift. Donald Trump also stopped by for Game 3, the only game the Knicks lost, a detail that made the series feel even bigger than a title chase.
What Chalamet did on Saturday leaves little doubt about where he stands now: for him, the championship is the prize that matters most. The unanswered question is not whether he meant it, but how long he plans to keep showing up when the Knicks are playing for something that only comes around once every generation.
