PHILADELPHIA \u2014 If you ask some Philadelphia fans, Taylor Swift\u2019s claim to the city should be revoked.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Swift sat on Madison Square Garden\u2019s celebrity row to watch the New York Knicks, who swept the Sixers out of the playoffs last month, claw back from a 29-point deficit against the San Antonio Spurs to take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals. Swift, a native of Reading, Pa., who spent her childhood summers in Stone Harbor, cheered on New York despite her strong ties to the Philadelphia area.<\/p>\n
The pop star wore a blue T-shirt with \u201cStevie Knicks\u201d \u2014 a nod to Fleetwood Mac\u2019s Stevie Nicks \u2014 printed in Knicks orange. She was seated between friends and fellow musicians Este and Alana Haim, who sported \u201cKnickole Kidman\u201d and \u201cKnickelback\u201d shirts, and Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay, whose character Olivia Benson inspired Swift\u2019s cat\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
After Swift was spotted at the Garden, Philadelphia fans took to social media to voice their displeasure with the singer\u2019s apparent New York fandom.<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s actually going on? Did Swift ever rep the Sixers or has she always been a big Knicks fan?<\/p>\n
In April 2002, a 12-year old Swift performed the national anthem before the Sixers tipped off against the Detroit Pistons at the First Union Center (now Xfinity Mobile Arena). Sixers public address announcer Matt Cord, who retired after this past season, introduced the future global star as \u201cTaylor Swift from Reading, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swift, who also performed the anthem before Game 3 of the 2008 World Series at Citizens Bank Park, recently reflected on singing at her hometown NBA team\u2019s arena during a December appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but she did not mention where her NBA fandom lies. She instead focused on the American flag-themed attire she wore.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, when you\u2019re like 11 and you\u2019ve got that one outfit that you just know goes so hard,\u201d Swift said. \u201cYou just know that when you put this on, you\u2019re like, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m unstoppable today.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
In 2014, Swift told Time magazine that she began to root for New York earlier that year when she moved to the Big Apple. That year, the \u201cProcess Sixers\u201d went 19-63, but the Knicks were not worldbeaters either, finishing 37-45. Her reason for embracing the Knicks was evidently not because of how the team was playing. Instead, it was because of a friendship she had made with New York big man Amar\u2019e Stoudemire.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you run into a bunch of different, interesting types of people at the Met Ball,\u201d Swift told Time. \u201cI\u2019ve gone the last four years. And the most normal people at that event, every single time, are Amar\u2019e Stoudemire and his wife Alexis. I talk with them and hang with them every time I\u2019m there. So I\u2019ve always had this sort of love of the Knicks, just because Amar\u2019e is so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also seems the Sixers did not claim a special place in Swift\u2019s heart because they invited her to sing, either. In fact, as she told Time, she also performed at Madison Square Garden as a child. The Mecca seemed to leave a greater impression on her than the Sixers\u2019 South Philly arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd also I performed at the Knicks\u2019 \u2014 at Madison Square Garden\u2019s kids talent competition at halftime when I was 12 or 13,\u201d Swift said. \u201cAnd ever since then, I\u2019ve had this kind of sparkly, magical opinion of Madison Square Garden and the Knicks, since they let me sing when I was a little kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
As some on social media have pointed out, Swift also attended Game 3 of the Knicks\u2019 Eastern Conference finals matchup on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers. At that game, seated next to her fianc\u00e9 and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, she appeared to root for the Cavaliers \u2014 not the Knicks. Kelce and his brother, retired Eagles great Jason Kelce, are natives of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and have been public in their support for the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n
Swift\u2019s complicated relationship with the Eagles does not leave many clues to where her loyalty lies, either. Despite previously performing in Eagles jerseys and mentioning the team in her 2020 song \u201cgold rush,\u201d Swift seemingly ditched the Birds after she began to date Kelce. Since then, she has supported Kansas City.<\/p>\n
It seems that Swift will have to correct the record on her favorite teams. Until then, a small sect of Philadelphia Swifties will likely hold out hope. The rest? They seem to have given up.<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a><\/p>\n \n Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.\n <\/p>\n \n Error! There was an error processing your request.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 If you ask some Philadelphia fans, Taylor Swift\u2019s claim to the city should be revoked. On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10377,68899,69,71,70,726],"class_list":["post-216994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-nba-basketball","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}