Larry David’s enthusiasm was a little curbed when the Knicks were down 71-42 before making an historic comeback against the Spurs in Game 4 on Wednesday night.
Fellow Knicks fan John McEnroe, seated next to David on Celebrity Row at Madison Square Garden, told the ESPN crew on “NBA Today” on Thursday that the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star was ready to head for the exit when all hope looked lost for the Knicks.
“We were sort of a little negative at 71-42,” the former tennis star and ESPN analyst said. “He was like, ‘Let’s get outta here.’ He was like, ‘Let’s get outta here.’ 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.’”
But McEnroe said he tried to get David to be a bit more positive in the face of an uphill battle for the Knicks.
“I said, ‘Larry, let’s get positive here. If they get it down [from 29] to 25, 21, 18, it’s 15 at the end of the [third] quarter.’ This type of stuff. ‘Let’s keep it positive,’” McEnroe 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 shocking comeback 107-106 Knicks win has put the team one win away from their first NBA title since 1973, whipping Knicks fans everywhere into a frenzy.
“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,” McEnroe said.
The interview was the second viral moment for David after video posted to social media showed the star nearly collapsing after Josh Hart missed a layup that would have given the Knicks a lead late in the fourth quarter.