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There’s plenty of star power on hand for Game 5 at Madison Square Garden between the Knicks and Pacers, but ESPN personality Pat McAfee is not among that group. The sports talk host told
his audience on Thursday that he was not making the trip to New York for the game despite public pressure from Knicks superfan and actor Ben Stiller. Stiller had called on McAfee to be at
the game on Thursday after he cut a WWE-style promo during Game 4 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, calling out Stiller, Timothée Chalamet and Spike Lee, who all made the trip to Indianapolis. “The
New York Knicks are at home tonight, down three games to one, in Madison Square Garden. There will be a ton of people packed there in that arena. I will not be one of them,” McAfee
admitted. EXPLORE MORE “Ben Stiller extended an invite to me publicly, but I am not paying $70,000 for a ticket. I’m sorry, I just can not do it. Obviously I will be watching the game. I’ll
be fired up for the game, but I will not be at Madison Square Garden. I’m just not doing it.” McAfee also claimed he had a scheduling conflict among other excuses that he gave for not
going to the game. Stiller had reacted to the viral moment of McAfee on Wednesday while appearing on “The Putback with Ian Begley” and said that he was “not familiar” with McAfee’s schtick.
“I did know that Timothée had been on his show,” Stiller said. “ And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s your boy. That’s your guy.’ So when that happened, I was a little bit like, ‘Whoa.’ But the WWE
aspect of it, I get it. It’s just not the way it happens in New York. He should come to the Garden for Game 5.”