John McEnroe has revealed fellow celebrity Knicks fan Larry David was trying to convince him to leave Game 4 of the NBA Finals at halftime, before their team pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in history.
The Knicks defied all odds at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night after recovering from a 29-point deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs and move to within one win of the NBA Championship.
Their astonishing turnaround was the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, with the likes of Taylor Swift, Timothee Chalamet, Kylie Jenner and Ben Stiller going wild after witnessing the madness from courtside in New York.
Two other A-list names courtside were longtime friends McEnroe and David, who soaked up the Miracle of Madison Square Garden while sat next to one another on celebrity row.
However, tennis icon McEnroe told the ESPN crew on ‘NBA Today’ that his close pal came close to missing the comeback – as he wanted to leave the Garden when the Knicks were trailing by 29 points just before halftime.
‘We were sort of a little negative at 71-42,’ he said about the Curb Your Enthusiasm star. ‘He was like, “Let’s get outta here.”
John McEnroe (right) has revealed Larry David (left) was trying to convince him to leave Game 4 of the NBA Finals before the Knicks’ historic comeback
The Knicks made the biggest NBA Finals comeback ever after recovering from 29 points down
Longtime friends and celebrity New York fans David and McEnroe were sat next to each other
‘I go, “Larry, listen, over the years it hasn’t come up the way we expected [as Knicks fans].” You know, I’ve blown a couple [of] big leads in my life… It was sort of like, “Here we go again, we’re gonna lose this. Something bad’s gonna happen.”‘
McEnroe, who has been a Knicks fan since he was a young child, urged David to keep the faith despite their incredibly slim odds of fighting back.
‘I said, “Larry, let’s get positive here. If they get it down to 25, 21, 18, it’s 15 at the end of the [third] quarter.” This type of stuff. “Let’s keep it positive,”‘ he continued.
‘That’s the most positive I’ve ever been at a game, and I’ve been at a lot of sporting events over the course of my 56 years of coming to Knicks games when I was 8 years old.’
The Knicks now lead 3-1 in the series, meaning another victory in San Antonio on Saturday will seal their first championship since 1973.
If the Spurs hit back on home soil, where they lost the opening two games of the series, a Game 6 will be required back at MSG on Tuesday.
Regardless of how it plays out, the electric atmosphere inside the arena will live long in the memory for McEnroe.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner added: ‘I’ve never felt the energy in a crowd at Madison Square [Garden]. We used to play a big tennis event there [the season-ending Masters] and nothing’s ever come close to that. No one left after an hour.’
