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Matt Damon told an all-time great story about Phil Jackson cursing him and Mark Wahlberg out at the 2008 NBA Finals
If there was ever a story that would have made for a great scene in an "Entourage" episode, it's the one Matt Damon told on a recent podcast with The Ringer's Bill Simmons. All it's missing is an appearance from Ari Gold.
Damon, who stars alongside Christian Bale in the upcoming "Ford v Ferrari," which hits theaters tomorrow, joined Simmons to discuss his new film, his "feud" with Jimmy Kimmel and much more. The best part of their discussion, though, involved the NBA, specifically the 2008 Finals that featured Damon's Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. Simmons, who had obviously heard this tale before, asked Damon to reminisce about the time he and former Lakers head coach Phil Jackson "got into it." We'll let Damon take it from there:
The game Damon is referring to is Game 4 of the '08 Finals. After falling into an 0-2 hole with a pair of losses in Boston, the Lakers won Game 3 87-81 and then raced out to a massive, 35-14 first quarter lead in Game 4 at the Staples Center. That lead extended to 24 points halfway through the second quarter, but the Celtics began to chip away. In the third quarter, as Damon describes it, Paul Pierce went full "truth mode," helping Boston erase the deficit with a 21-3 run to make it a two-point game. Eventually, Boston won a stunner, 97-91, to take a commanding 3-1 series lead that L.A. never recovered from.
Understandably, the Zen Master wasn't feeling the Zen as he watched his team implode, and Damon and fellow Celtics fan Mark Wahlberg happened to be standing in his path of destruction. Nice little bonus Kobe Bryant story from Damon as well. Man, those Celtics-Lakers we're pretty awesome, though no one wants to admit it.