Billy Crystal and Spike Lee take their places in the Hall of Fame as basketball superfans

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – Honored for his dedication to a basketball team that has no Hall of Fame history, Billy Crystal couldn’t help but notice the irony.

“It’s weird getting a ring before any of the Clippers,” he said.

The actor is inducted into the James F. Goldstein Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame SuperFan Gallery and attended Sunday’s ceremony together with fellow artist and filmmaker Spike Lee and Philadelphia businessman Alan Horwitz. Longtime Lakers fan Jack Nicholson also joined the invitees, but the three-time Oscar winner was unable to attend.

Crystal was wearing a sports jacket and pants, and Lee and Horwitz were dressed as in the event that they were sitting on the field. Wearing an orange vest over a New York sweatshirt and a black Knicks hat, Lee fought his opponent as if he were sitting in his seat at Madison Square Garden.

“I saw some Boston Celtic green. Uh-uh,” he said, before showing fans that he had brought coach Red Holzman’s 1973 NBA championship ring, the last won by the Knicks.

“It’s been a long time coming, but I think the sky will be orange and blue this year,” Lee said.

Horwitz, known as the 76ers’ Sixth Man, wore a 76ers sweatshirt, a blue Sixers hat and blue and white sneakers. He choked at the thought of how proud his mother could be if she knew about his honor.

Their time as basketball fans dates back over fifty years. Horwitz was watching the Philadelphia Warriors when Wilt Chamberlain was a rookie in 1959. Crystal was in highschool a couple of years earlier when he took an interest in one other highschool player, Larry Brown, who later became established after winning championships as a school and NBA coach.

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Lee was at the arena when the Knicks won their first championship in 1970, and Crystal made many appearances at MSG himself, starting out as a Knicks fan. When he moved across the country, he went to Lakers games before someone beneficial he watch a Clippers game.

“And I said, ‘Why?'” Crystal said.

But he liked it and stayed with them ever since, regardless that the team never rewarded him with a championship. Lee has had season tickets to the Knicks since 1985 when Patrick Ewing was drafted, even though it took a while to land the prime real estate he currently occupies.

“Every video I’ve moved down,” he said.

While Lee is talking a couple of title this season, Crystal doesn’t have such high expectations for the Clippers. But he noted that devoted fans keep on with their teams regardless of what.

Not that it is usually easy. As he spoke, the baby began to cry.

“This is how we have felt for the last 30 years,” Crystal said.