Ben Stiller Couldn’t Care Less About Your Thoughts on Him Attending Met Gala Over Knicks Game

Actor Ben Stiller chose to attend the 2026 Met Gala over Game 1 of the Knicks-76ers second-round playoff series. | Grace Smith / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Earth is round. The Thunder look inevitable. And Ben Stiller is a Knicks fan.

There aren’t too many certainties in this life, but Stiller cheering on his beloved New York team is one of them. That’s why it was shocking to some NBA fans when Stiller was seen on Monday night attending the 2026 Met Gala in NYC, just a little over two miles north of Madison Square Garden where the Knicks were opening their second-round series against the 76ers.

Even Timothée Chalamet was in the house for Game 1, ditching girlfriend Kylie Jenner who opted to join society’s elite on the red carpet at The Met instead. (Whether Chalamet’s decision to skip the dignified event was a tactical one, given his previous critical comments of ballet and opera, is up for debate.)

So, why didn’t Ben show up? He didn’t give a direct reason for picking fashion over basketball, but the Zoolander star seemed like he wished he was at the Garden.

“If you can’t be at Madison Square Garden watching the Knicks win their first playoff game against the 76ers—Knicks in six—this is a great second choice,” Stiller, outfitted in a navy blue suit and orange tie, said at the Gala.

Amid backlash over his decision to snub the Knicks, Stiller shared a blunt message on his social media in response to a poll created by The Dan Patrick Show’s Twitter account asking if Stiller going to the Met Gala instead of the playoff basketball game was “no big deal” or “weak” (as of Tuesday afternoon, 58% of voters thought it was weak.)

“Bring it,” Stiller simply wrote. “I know who i am.”

Bring it
I know who i am https://t.co/ukusGUUzhk

— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) May 5, 2026

Stiller has straddled a fine line between the celebrity and sports world in recent history: in 2021 he served as co-chair for the Met Gala, but then in ‘25 he notably skipped the annual event for a Knicks playoff game against the Celtics (New York won, 108-105, in an overtime thriller.)

For those who still think he’s not committed to the blue and orange, here’s Stiller talking about how he got into the team decades ago:

“It goes way back. It goes back to the 70s, it goes back to my dad who didn’t have season tickets but had friends who had season tickets,” Stiller said of the origins of his die-hard fandom on an episode of The Ringer NBA Show in 2025. “... They had eighth row behind the Knicks’ basket, and so sometimes we would go and sit there with them. ... This was maybe like when I was 8 years old, 1973. So I remember being introduced to Phil Jackson and people like that, and since then I just started going.”

In the modern age of bandwagoners, Stiller is 100% loyal to his Knicks. Enough said. In Stiller’s absence, the Knicks blew out the 76ers in a 137-98 stomping—Game 2 is Wednesday night at MSG, and we’d bet good money that Stiller won’t miss that one.

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