Spike Lee Accuses Knicks Owner Of Harassing Him, Says He's Done Attending This Year's Games

Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images

The comments stem from a video that seemed to show Spike Lee being thrown out of Madison Square Garden during the New York Knicks' Monday night game.

Spike Lee took to ESPN's First Take on Tuesday morning to discuss the viral video that appears to show him being thrown out of Madison Square Garden on Monday night for the New York Knicks' game against the Houston Rockets.

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The director explained that he entered the employee entrance to MSG, got his ticket scanned and went to the elevator only to be stopped by security who told him he had to get off the elevator. After refusing to do so, the elevator finally moved up. Upon getting to the fifth floor, Lee said that security was waiting for him, where they told him he had to leave the arena and re-enter on the other side.

"I put my hands behind my back and I said, 'Arrest me like my brother Charles Oakley,'" Lee recalled saying (a reference to Oakley once getting kicked out of a Knicks game), before going to explain how some friends got him into the game without him having to leave the arena.

Elsewhere, Lee said Knicks owner James Dolan approached him at halftime saying the two needed to talk, but Lee did not want to talk to him.

"I'm being harassed by James Dolan and I don't know why," Lee said about the matter before speaking on the statement the Knicks released on the incident, which he said is a lie. (The release said that Lee wasn't kicked out, and that there was confusion about what entrance Lee should be using. The Knicks then offered a follow-up statement claiming that they have repeatedly asked Lee to use a dedicated VIP entrance for celebrities.)

Lee was also asked if he's going to return to a Knicks game this year, to which he said: "Not this year...I'm coming back next year but I'm done for the season. I'm done."

Source: ESPN