Even the most hardened cynical citizens of the five boroughs can’t help but feel a pang of hope—even just a glimmer of optimism—about our beloved New York Knicks. Tonight at Madison Square Garden, “the World’s Most Famous Arena,” Gotham’s starting five goes to war against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. We’ve been here before, yes…but after a dominant four-game sweep of the 76ers, it feels real. The Knicks are four wins away from their first NBA Finals since 1999.
Ahead of tip-off tonight, I wrote about Celebrity Row, that strip of courtside seats where team owner James Dolan personally plunks down a wildly unpredictable combination of celebrities. There’s often no through line except the part where they bleed orange and blue. One game’s lineup: Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Timothée Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Spike Lee.
Elsewhere at Vanity Fair, we’ve got Darryn King’s epic interview with David Koepp, the writer behind Steven Spielberg’s aliens-on-earth blockbuster Disclosure Day. And from the archives, revisit Buzz Bissinger’s profile of Mark Fuhrman, the LAPD detective at the center of the O.J. Simpson trial, who died this week.
