Actor Ethan Hawke, whose movies include Training Day, Before Sunrise, Boyhood, among others got his New York Knicks tickets taken away from him after publicly criticizing the team.
In an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Hawke shared his story behind losing his gift tickets. He confessed that after hitting the Knicks for keeping Carmelo Anthony, his game tickets, which he revealed that he got as gifts, were no longer free. Hawke said:
I've been a Knicks fan for a long time, but I got kicked out of the Garden. They won't give me tickets anymore.
I'm being serious. I'm being dead serious. I really was vocal on some talk shows like this that I thought it was a huge mistake to let Mike (D'Antoni) go and I would have bet on Mike (D'Antoni) before I bet on Melo.
One person who owns (the team) … I called up one night and they said it would be $7,800. I was like, “Oh, um, oh, why is this the first time you guys are charging me?” They said that you should have thought of that before you went on the Jimmy Fallon Show. I was like, “Wow, this is real.” So I've apologized publicly many times to try and get my seats again.
As it turns out, the tickets given to Hawke merely served as some sort of marketing stunt to attract more fans to watch in the Garden. Once you criticize the team, the tickets are good as gone. So much for free speech.