Getty In this handout provided by A.M.P.A.S., Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Charlie Wachtel pose with the Adapted Screenplay award for 'BlacKkKlansman' backstage during the 91st Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on February 24, 2019 in Hollywood, California.
Candice Wiggins had a very successful WNBA career. Wiggins won a WNBA Championshop and once won the WNBA’s Sixth Woman of the Year Award.
But, to add to that list, she can say that as a member of the New York Liberty, she played in front of die-hard New York Knicks fan Spike Lee.
Wiggins retired from basketball as a member of the New York Liberty in 2015.
But she distinctly remembers Lee sitting courtside!
GettySpike Lee watching the New York Knicks with his son Jackson.
“I would say, you know the coolest thing was playing in Madison Square Garden and just helping the Liberty have the best season in history,” Wiggins told me on Scoop B Radio.
How cool is that?
“And I would say having Spike Lee at the game. He came to our two last games. He came to the Eastern Conference Semis and then the Eastern Conference Finals and I remember the whole season I was saying the last year: ‘I know I’ve made it, as soon as I signed with the New York Liberty, I said: I know I’ve made it when Spike Lee comes to a game.’ And I kinda just put that out there in the universe and every time I would say it to people, people were just like: ‘Man, Spike Lee ain’t coming to no WNBA game, he ain’t coming to our game, he’s never coming to our game. He ain’t in 20 years.’ Everyone kind of just rolled their eyes.”
But Wiggins had faith as small as a mustard seed. And guess what? Spike Lee came to a New York Liberty game!
“I’m like: ‘man I have a feeling, man I just have a feeling that if we get good enough.’ I was just putting it out in the universe and then I’ll never forget I was warming up and then I looked up at the Jumbotron in Madison Square Garden: and it said: “Thanks Spike Lee, welcome Spike Lee to a Liberty game.” I was like: ‘oh no it’s over now.’ Like this is it, like this is it. And then you know, I had two of my best games in my entire career with him there? And I just, that’s when I really felt that like I was on the top of Mount Everest. Like you know, it was the craziest thing I just felt like this is it. This is what athletes play for to be in the mecca; Spike Lee sideline at the Garden, damn!”