{"id":726077,"date":"2026-06-09T22:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726077\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T22:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:42:19","slug":"knicks-fever-goes-celestial-as-spike-lee-dons-pope-inspired-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726077\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks fever goes celestial as Spike Lee dons Pope-inspired gear"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Knicks superfan Spike Lee<\/a> is hoping his team has some divine intervention to lead them to their first championship since 197<\/a>3.<\/p>\n

The Academy Award-winning director<\/a> was seen wearing a custom #14 Pope Leo jersey to Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>. Lee received the jersey from the pontiff last year during his visit to the Vatican in November.<\/p>\n

1 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Ben Stiller and Timothee Chalamet<\/a> react in the first quarter between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs during game three of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

1 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Ben Stiller and Timothee Chalamet<\/a> react in the first quarter between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs during game three of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

2 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Spike Lee looks on before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

3 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Jun 8, 2026; New York, New York, USA; Kai Trump and United States president Donald Trump look on before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images ORG XMIT: IMAGN-1339870 ORIG FILE ID: 20260608_lbm_cb6_023.JPG<\/p>\n

(Vincent Carchietta, Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

4 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

(L-R) Actors Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet look on during the first quarter of a game between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks in Game Three of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 8, 2026 in New York City.<\/p>\n

(Al Bello, Getty Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

5 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

A fan takes a cellphone photo of actor Timothee Chalamet before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Geoff Burke, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

6 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Comedian Tracy Morgan and actor Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet look on prior to a game between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks in Game Three of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 8, 2026 in New York City.<\/p>\n

(Dustin Satloff, Getty Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

7 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Actor Timothee Chalamet looks on before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Geoff Burke, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

8 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Former professional basketball player Jeremy Lin and filmmaker Spike Lee are interviewed by NBA Mexico before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

9 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Comedian Tracy Morgan (center) talks with Hall of Fame basketball player Patrick Ewing (left) before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Geoff Burke, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

10 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Actor and filmmaker Ben Stiller takes a photo with his mobile photo from courtside before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Geoff Burke, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

11 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Former New York Knicks player Walt Frazier poses prior to Game Three between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 8, 2026 in New York City.<\/p>\n

(Dustin Satloff, Getty Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

12 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Celebrities courtside as Knicks face Spurs in NBA Finals battle in NYC<\/p>\n

Reverend Al Sharpton (left) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Geoff Burke, Imagn Images)\"\"<\/p>\n

13 \/ 13<\/p>\n

Crowd boos Trump during anthem at tense Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals game<\/p>\n

General view before game three of the 2026 NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

(Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Lee also wore the jersey during Game 2 of New York\u2019s first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>. The Knicks lost that game 107-106 at the Garden. They lost the next game, too, to fall behind in that series 2-1 on April 23 \u2013 their last loss before this current 13-game postseason winning streak.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Spike Lee goes divine for Knicks NBA Finals run with Pope Leo jersey<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Knicks superfan Spike Lee is hoping his team has some divine intervention to lead them to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[351566,7218,64,63,726,351565,1666,87847,10549,54828,85],"class_list":["post-726077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-academy-award-winning-director","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-divine-intervention","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-pope-leo","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-spike-lee","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}