Why Larry David Has Big Issues with Spurs HC Mitch Johnson (and His Assistant)

Larry David sat courtside for the Knicks' Game 4 win, right next to the Spurs bench, and he came away with a complaint that had nothing to do with the score.

The problem was the bench itself. David's seats put him directly behind it, and a Spurs assistant coach spent the game on his feet, standing right in front of him.

David granted that the head coach, Mitch Johnson, had every right to stand. The assistant was another matter. For people seated behind the bench trying to watch the game, David said, you cannot see anything.

His issue was less anger than etiquette, the kind of social-contract grievance that has fueled decades of his comedy. If he were the coach, he insisted, he would think about the paying customers behind him.

"I won't get up. I won't get up," David said, imagining himself in the role. "I would be cognizant of the people watching."

Rich compared it to a famous Seinfeld bit, George treating a small courtesy like a grand favor. The comparison fit, because this was David in real life doing exactly what his television characters always have, finding the one small injustice inside a euphoric night and refusing to let it go.

That euphoric night was real. The Anunoby tip that won it happened right in front of David's seat, a shot he could not believe Anunoby even attempted from thirty feet out. He marveled afterward at how close the Spurs came to stealing it, how Karl-Anthony Towns' tip of the inbound pass was the only thing that kept Castle from a wide-open look at a game-winner. When it was over, David did what the rest of the stunned building did. He milled about.

"I was a miller," he said.