The Eastern Conference Finals were supposed to be about basketball. Instead? Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner stole the spotlight… when they didn’t even try to. Courtside in Indiana for Game 6, the superstar couple lit up the cameras with loud cheers, matching Knicks jackets, and very public PDA. Jenner threw her arms around the Dune actor after a big Knicks bucket, while Timothee Chalamet flashed that sly smirk as he has his whole life.

The Knicks lost the game 108-125. But the internet won, at least until Skip Bayless chimed in. “When did Timothée Chalamet replace Spike Lee as Mr. Knick??? Before this, he was a Complete Unknown when it came to the Knicks. And Kylie Jenner is Ms. Knick??? This is just wrong,” he took to X.

Skip Bayless isn’t a Knicks fan… far from it, actually. If anything, he’s made a second career out of side-eyeing their every move. Over the years, he’s called them “overhyped,” roasted their playoff collapses, and gleefully needled Stephen A. Smith, arguably the Knicks’ loudest supporter, every time the team flames out. And after the Knicks’ Eastern Conference Finals Game 1 loss to the Pacers, Bayless didn’t hold back. He labeled it an “all-time playoff choke job” and couldn’t resist twisting the knife, mocking Smith in the aftermath, like it was personal.

So naturally, being a veteran of sports hot takes, he couldn’t resist calling out what he saw as a celebrity takeover of a fanbase that’s spent decades bleeding orange and blue, not posing in it. Because back in the ’90s, when the Knicks and Pacers were trading blows like heavyweight rivals, it was Spike Lee and Reggie Miller who turned up the heat.

One glare, one taunt, and suddenly the Garden was a battlefield. It wasn’t just fandom. It was folklore. So when Skip watches two Hollywood darlings steal that front-row shine in Indiana, of all places, his confusion isn’t just about clout. It’s about who earned the right to represent the pain and pride that comes with bleeding Knicks blue.

Timothee goes full Knick, and Skip says ‘no thanks’

To be fair, Skip’s got a point. Because Chalamet’s New York roots may be legit, but his hoops résumé? Not exactly in the rafters. And nobody’s mistaking Chalamet for a Knicks lifer. Not yet, anyway. On the other hand, Kylie Jenner is a Los Angeles native and has supported the Lakers at every given opportunity.

But that didn’t stop the cameras from locking in on the actor and reality TV mogul like they were royalty. It also didn’t stop Kylie from letting the world know she was in it, arms up and cheering like she’s been part of this fan base since John Starks and Patrick Ewing. They looked like they belonged. Sort of.

And that’s what icked Skip. For a franchise that’s leaned so heavily on Spike Lee’s decades-long fandom, seeing Hollywood’s freshest couple soaking up a playoff moment felt… off-brand. Is this a power shift in Knicks fandom, or just a fun cameo in a weird setting?

Because if it were a PR play, it worked. Timothee and Kylie had more screen time than some of the Knicks’ bench. And with Jenner shouting and Timothee Chalamet grinning, you almost forgot this was a do-or-die game for New York. Skip clearly thinks it’s the former. But if Chalamet keeps showing up like this, can we really say he doesn’t belong? At what point does a courtside cameo become culture?

Then again, it’s hard to imagine him jawing with referees like Spike. For now, he’s still more Bones and All than Blood in the Garden. But hey, who’s to say the Knicks can’t have more than one face in the front row?