Rick Carlisle reveals the only celebrity he acknowledged at Madison Square Garden during 2025 ECF: “This guy was the dude, he was larger than life” originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Madison Square Garden is always filled with celebrities, especially in the playoffs. That was the case when the Indiana Pacers faced the New York Knicks in the 2025 Eastern Conference finals.
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle was too busy trying to win games to notice all of them. However, he did notice those who sat near his team’s bench.
Carlisle mentioned Ben Stiller, Timothy Chalamet and the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” duo of Larry David and Susie Essman. But because they were all Knicks fans, he did not talk to them or even say hi. However, he did make an exception for one celebrity.
“The one person that I saw that was sitting two seats down from where I was sitting on the bench, and I had to go shake hands was John McEnroe,” admitted Carlisle. “You grew up watching tennis, this guy was the dude, he was larger than life. It was hard not to be a fan. He got everyone captivated with the sport, with the rivalry between him and Borg and all that stuff. And he was super cool. He said a couple of very nice things.”
The Bad Boy of tennis
Aside from playing golf, Carlisle is a table tennis enthusiast and is good friends with former world no.1 table tennis player Timo Ball of Germany, whom he met through Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas. However, he is obviously a big tennis fan as well, and as such, recognizes John McEnroe’s greatness in the sport.
The Hall of Famer from Newburgh, New York, McEnroe ruled as the No.1 ranked singles player on the ATP tour for 170 total weeks during the 1980s. He was known as the “bad boy of tennis” because of his fiery temper and emotional outbursts on the court.
Still, McEnroe was arguably the most popular tennis player in his era, winning seven Grand Slam singles titles, including four at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, which is around 10 miles away from The Garden.
A longtime season ticket holder
As a New Yorker, McEnroe is a diehard Knicks fan and longtime season ticket holder. He was at the Mecca when former Knicks star Charles Oakley was handcuffed and arrested while watching a game in February 2017 and called the team a “trainwreck.”
But the team’s fortunes have greatly changed for the better since then, with the Knicks coming off their third-straight postseason appearance and their first conference finals appearance in 25 years.
In that Game 2 of the ECF, when Carlisle shook McEnroe’s hand, the Pacers prevailed 114-109 to take a 2-0 series lead. The Knicks would bounce back and win Game 3 in Indiana, but the Pacers won Game 4 to build a 3-1 lead before closing out the series in six games.
The loss led to Tom Thibodeau’s firing, which McEnroe called “harsh” and said it was a “bummer.” He’s yet to react to Mike Brown succeeding him on the bench, but like every Knicks fan, he can only hope the move would help the team make it even deeper in the playoffs and ultimately win their first NBA title since 1973.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 17, 2025, where it first appeared.