Spike Lee reveals one thing he ‘would give up an Academy Award’ for

Spike Lee is known for his love of the New York Knicks, but this is extreme.

At Thursday’s Eastern Conference final game of the 2025 NBA championship, which his team won 111-94 over the Indiana Pacers, he offered up one of the honors he’s received for his decades-long career in the entertainment industry in exchange for the title.

“I would give up an Academy Award, Oscar, for the Knicks to win a championship,” Lee declared in a conversation on NBA on TNT with analysts including retired star Charles Barkley.

The former Phoenix Suns player responded, “Well, you’re gonna keep ’em!”

The men laughed, and Lee, who can regularly be spotted courtside, replied that the basketball legend didn’t have to say that.

Even after their win, the Knicks are still fighting to stay alive. The Pacers lead them 3-2, and the first team to win four games advances to the overall NBA championship finals. They last won in 1973.

Lee took home his first Oscar in 2016, when he received an honorary award for his contributions to film, which includes titles such as Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and Jungle Fever. In 2019, he won the category of Best Adapted Screenplay for his BlacKkKlansman. He was nominated for best director and best picture, too, but lost. (Actor Timothée Chalamet, who’s been nominated for two little gold men of his own was another Knicks supporter at the game.)

Watch the full conversation with Lee above.

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The other men in conversation with Lee, including Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson and Barkley’s fellow analysts–former NBA stars Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, will be switching networks from TNT to ESPN along with the NBA as the season comes to a close next month.

“It’s the new beginning for us,” the Kazaam star told the audience. “I’m glad we’re still together on whatever network we go to, and whatever network we comin’ to, we’re bringing the pain. I’m just letting you know right now. Okay, I know everybody’s sad, ‘Oh it ain’t gonna be the show,’ the show is still here baby. You can never kill the four horsemen.”