Asked to name the “fakest” celebrity fan he has spotted courtside, New York Knicks guard Tyler Kolek picked Taylor Swift. Within a day, his own team put out a statement taking her side.
Kolek, 25, and teammate Miles “Deuce” McBride were guests on Thursday, November 5, on Deflected, a video series made by the NBA 2K League, the esports league tied to the basketball video game. The question was simple. Kolek’s answer started with crowds in general at the Garden, then landed on one name.
“At the Knicks games, I would say it’s very performative, because they just want to be seen at the game. They’re not necessarily fans. Maybe Taylor Swift?”
McBride agreed on the spot. Kolek then added, “I don’t know if I’ve seen her at any other games.”
The half-step back
Both players knew what was coming. McBride warned that Swift’s fan base would hate the answer, and Kolek said he expected “some hate from the Swifties.” He tried to soften it: “I guess she’s got a lot going on, so she can’t come all the time, but —” McBride cut in to tease him for backpedaling. Kolek finished the thought anyway: “It’s a little performative.”
A Knicks fan account on X posted a transcript of the exchange the same day. By Friday it could no longer be found on the league’s TikTok or Instagram pages, although the full episode stayed up on YouTube.
The Knicks answer their own player
A day after the video went out, the club issued a short statement defending the singer:
“Taylor Swift has been a Knicks fan for many years, has a long history with Madison Square Garden, and we are incredibly appreciative of her support of the organization.”
In other words, the franchise publicly sided with a fan over one of the players on its own roster.
Second time in five months
Swift’s loyalty to the Knicks has already been questioned once this year by someone inside the organization. Before Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals at the Garden, team radio analyst Monica McNutt was heard on air asking whether it was Swift down by the court and declaring she was not a Knicks fan. McNutt apologized in a street interview less than 24 hours later.
That night turned into one of the wildest in team history. New York completed a huge comeback against the San Antonio Spurs, and cameras kept cutting to Swift celebrating in a “Stevie Knicks” shirt alongside Este and Alana Haim and actor Mariska Hargitay. The Knicks closed out the series 4–1 on June 13 to win the 2026 NBA title.
Swift’s defenders point to a long paper trail. She has said she has loved the team since performing at a halftime kids’ talent show at the Garden around age 12 or 13, and she has lived in New York and turned up at games during seasons when the team was losing. During this year’s run she also went to Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals in Cleveland.
Who is Tyler Kolek
Kolek grew up in Cumberland, Rhode Island, starred at Marquette, where he was named Big East Player of the Year in 2023, and was taken 34th overall in the 2024 draft by Portland before a draft-night trade sent him to New York. Teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart call him “The Michael Jordan of Rhode Island.”
On the court during the title run, his role was small. Kolek appeared in 8 of the Knicks’ 19 playoff games and averaged 6.6 minutes in those appearances. Multiply it out and 8 games times 6.6 minutes comes to roughly 53 minutes of playoff basketball, the length of one 48-minute regulation game plus a single five-minute overtime. McBride, by contrast, played in all 19 games at 17.6 minutes a night, or about 334 minutes in total.
Neither Swift nor her representatives had commented on Kolek’s remarks as of Saturday morning. The Knicks’ statement remains the only official response, and it ends on the line the club chose to stress: the team is “incredibly appreciative of her support of the organization.”
Further reading
Image: Jean-Baptiste Bellet from Toulouse, France, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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