This one hurts so bad.
John Mellencamp has taken Pat McAfee to task for his foul-mouthed rant on the Knicks’ celebrity fans that attended Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night in Indianapolis.
“The Knicks/Pacers games have been very entertaining for anyone who likes basketball or sports. I attended Game 4 in Indianapolis,” Mellencamp, the Hall of Fame singer-songwriter and Indiana native, wrote on social media.
“‘Hoosier Hospitality’ …I was embarrassed when somebody, under whose direction I don’t know, called out some of the people who had made the trip from New York to support their team — and in turn, support our team. The audience booed these people. I’d say that was not Hoosier Hospitality. One could only say it’s poor, poor sportsmanship. I was not proud to be a Hoosier, and I’ve lived here my entire life.
“On behalf of most Hoosiers, I would like to apologize for our poor behavior. I’m sure the Pacers had nothing to do with this smackdown.”
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McAfee, the former Colts punter and current WWE commentator whose eponymous ESPN show is filmed in Indianapolis, was given a microphone to speak to the crowd during the fourth quarter of the Pacers’ win on Tuesday and let the Knicks’ celebrity fans have it.
“Indianapolis, Indiana, we’ve got some bigwigs from the big city in the building,” McAfee began.
“Spike Lee is here. Ben Stiller is here. Timothée Chalamet is here,” he continued, with fans booing after each name. “Let’s send these sons of bitches back to New York with their ears ringing. Let’s turn this s–t up!”
McAfee addressed Mellencamp’s comments Thursday on X, stating, “I am ‘somebody’.”
Stiller seemed surprised by McAfee’s comments during an appearance on SNY’s “The Putback.”
“I did know that Timothée had been on his show. 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,” Stiller said Wednesday.
“They’ll put him up on the screen and they’ll show him punting the ball and everybody will give him a nice cheer,” Stiller added. “That’s how we do it in New York. But I get it, it was fun. He was just trying to get the crowd riled up. It was a little bit out of the blue. It’s also like, are we really doing the narrative of ‘Hicks versus Knicks’? Like the bigwigs from New York? It just seems a little cartoonish. But then again, it goes with the WWE.”
The Pacers won the game, 130-121, to take a 3-1 series lead heading into Thursday night’s Game 5 at MSG.
The winner of the series will face the Thunder in the 2025 NBA Finals starting next Thursday.
