'A little performative': NBA champ calls pop queen a fake fan

Taylor Swift has been called a lot of things. "Fake Knicks fan" is new, and it came from one of the Knicks.

Guard Tyler Kolek, 25, was asked to name the team's "fakest" celebrity fan in a video for the NBA 2K League's TikTok account, NBC New York reports. He didn't take long.

"Maybe Taylor Swift?" he said. "I don't know if I've seen her at any other games."

Teammate Miles "Deuce" McBride, 26, backed him up: "I would agree. Swifties not gonna like that answer."

'A little performative'

Kolek said most of the famous faces courtside are "usually solid," naming Ben Stiller and Tracy Morgan, who are regulars at Madison Square Garden.

Swift, he suggested, is different. "At the Knicks games, I would say it's very performative," he said, adding that fans like that "just want to be seen at the game," E! News reports.

He did cut her some slack. "I guess she's got a lot going on so she can't come all the time, but it's a little performative," he said.

The team didn't let it sit. A Knicks spokesperson said Swift "has been a Knicks fan for many years, has a long history with Madison Square Garden," and that "we are incredibly appreciative of her support of the organization," according to NBC New York and E!.

Swifties were less polite. "She has attended quite a few Knicks games, this bum wasn't even on the roster yet! Cry harder," one wrote. Another posted a photo of Swift at a Knicks game in 2014 next to a childhood photo of Kolek in a middle school jersey.

Courtside for the title run

Swift was hard to miss during the Knicks' championship run. She sat courtside for Game 4 of the NBA Finals on June 10 with Este and Alana Haim and Mariska Hargitay, in a shirt that read "Stevie Knicks," E! reports. That night the Knicks came back from 29 points down, the biggest comeback in Finals history, to lead the San Antonio Spurs 3-1, NBC New York notes.

She and Travis Kelce were also cheer captains at an Eastern Conference finals game in Cleveland in May. The chair she sat in later sold for $7,000.

And on July 3, she married Kelce at Madison Square Garden, E! reports.

It's not the first time her fandom has been questioned. During Game 4, analyst Monica McNutt said on air: "She's not a Knicks fan. Get out of here girl." She later apologized, telling TMZ: "Shoutout T-Swift. We can be united."