Honored for his devotion to a basketball team that doesn't have a Hall of Fame history, Billy Crystal couldn't help but note the irony.
"How strange to be getting a ring before any of the Clippers," he said.
The actor is being added to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery and took part in a ceremony Sunday along with fellow entertainer and filmmaker Spike Lee and Philadelphia businessman Alan Horwitz. Longtime Lakers fan Jack Nicholson is also being added but the three-time Academy Award winner was not able to attend.
Crystal wore a sports jacket and slacks, while Lee and Horwitz dressed as if they were sitting courtside. Lee, with an orange vest over a New York sweatshirt and topped by a black Knicks bucket hat, sparred with the opposition as if he was in his seat at Madison Square Garden.
"I saw some Boston Celtic green. Uh-uh," he said, before showing the fans that he had brought coach Red Holzman's 1973 NBA championship ring, the last one won by the Knicks.
