Reality (Still) Bites; Trae Young Playoff Mastery Still Haunts Knicks Superfan Ben Stiller

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Ben Stiller, an actor and a huge admirer of the New York Knicks, has not been able to shake the image of Trae Young's clipping of the 2021 season basketball team.  

Ben Stiller saw a sad loss that not even an average Joe could match seventeen years after being on the losing end of a "True Underdog Story" (one of the "Dodgeball" kind).   

The actor, producer, and writer Stiller, who is a huge New York Knicks fan, was the most recent guest on the show "Roommates Show," which is run by current Manhattan stars Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.  

Stiller is happy with what the Knicks are doing now, but he sadly admitted that the first round of the 2021 Eastern Conference playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks is still fresh in his mind.  

"Trae Young really triggered something with Knicks fans," Stiller said (h/t Peachtree Hoops' Joe Schmidt). "In the Knicks and playoffs, Trae's play incited fans and he seemed to enjoy it."  

Naturally, Young's Madison Square Garden masterclass, where he averaged 29.2 points and 9.8 assists in a five-game series win for the Hawks that spoiled the Knicks' first playoff trip in eight years, came to mind.   

That series against the Knicks was the most important moment in Young's NBA career so far. He led the Hawks to an unexpected trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to the eventual winner Milwaukee Bucks.   

Young is known as a "Knicks killer" because of the series, even though his team has lost 14 of the 19 regular season games they've played against New York with him on the court.   

On Tuesday night, when the Hawks travelled to New York City, Young was not on the court because he was suffering with a finger issue at the opportunity.   

The final score was 116–100 for Atlanta over a Knicks team that was missing four players, including Brunson. With the win, Atlanta now leads the season series two games to one.   

Brunson, Hart, and the Knicks (36–26) will try to make this spring's trip more special for Stiller and the rest of the MSG fans.   

The Orlando Magic will be their opponent on Friday night at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, MSG). In the meanwhile, they await their opponent. 

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