Feel old yet?
Sauce Gardner and his new Jets teammate Aaron Rodgers were in attendance at Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks’ Game 2 win over the Heat Tuesday, evening to even their second-round series at 1-1.
They were hardly the only stars at the Garden, as comedians Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Tracy Morgan along with a plethora of Hollywood A-listers were in the building amongst a raucous crowd.
There’s a substantial age gap between the 22-year-old Gardner and 39-year-old Rodgers, and it was glaring when they were sat next to an actress seemingly before Gardner’s time.
“When we were getting seated, [Rodgers] was just picking on me a little bit for being young,” Gardner told reporters on Wednesday. “We were getting seated and he was like ‘we’re about to sit by,’ what’s her name? ‘We’re about to sit by Jessica Alba,’ and I’m just like ‘Oh, I don’t know who that is.’ And he just looked at me, he looked at me like I’m crazy.”
The 42-year-old Alba, who was rumored to be dating Derek Jeter for a period of time, rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series “Dark Angel” and made her breakthrough onto the big screen in “Honey” before starring in numerous major hits.
Gardner was barely a toddler when those were released in the early 2000s.
It appears Gardner, a Detroit native, was quickly educated.
“It was just great to be able to sit over there, and I got to meet her,” Gardner said. “And one of her friends, who was from Detroit, actually. It was great vibes, but that whole night he would just keep asking me out of nowhere, like ‘do you know who that person is? I’m like ‘bro, that’s Amar’e Stoudemire, I know who that is. Now you’re just picking on me.'”
Stoudemire, a former Knicks star, was in attendance along with his former teammate Carmelo Anthony.
“I know her now,” Gardner posted on Twitter accompanied by a laughing emoji.
Gardner said that he got to meet Rock, Chapelle and Morgan as well, all of whom he did actually know of.
Alba revealed that she was invited to the game by Knicks star Julius Randle, and commended his performance on Wednesday.
“Congrats @nyknicks on the W! Thank you @juliusrandle30 for the invite, you are a kind soul,” Alba captioned an Instagram post that featured a video compilation of her night at the Garden. “And it was awesome watching your leadership on the court.”
It wasn’t Rodgers’ first appearance at the Garden, as he’s quickly gotten himself accustomed to New York City while attending multiple Rangers and Knicks playoff games with his new Jets teammates in recent days.