On Monday evening, New Yorkers huddled across the boroughs to watch the Knicks play the Spurs in Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals. Some celebrities, including Spike Lee and Timothée Chalamet, snagged courtside seats, but downtown in the former Tribeca Grill space, others joined an unexpected group of Knicks fans for the 19th annual Chanel Tribeca Festival Artists Dinner.
Just before tip-off, five big-screen TVs stationed around the room were powered up. Bowls of caramel corn were arranged near napkins with the Chanel logo embroidered in orange and blue. Trays of black-and-white cookies — made instead with orange-and-blue frosting — floated around the room alongside Knicks caps stacked on silver trays.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment,” said the actress Teyana Taylor. “I feel like a kid again.” (The party ended a few hours before the Spurs held on to beat the Knicks, 115-111.)
The Tribeca Festival runs through June 14, and kicked off last week with a premiere of Madonna’s short film “Confessions II,” featuring the first six songs from her upcoming album of the same name. Monday’s dinner honored 10 artists who donated works that are presented to Tribeca Festival winners, including Kiki Smith, Hank Willis Thomas and the twin designers Soull and Dynasty Ogun.
Inside the restaurant, bouquets of white roses and blush peonies filled the tables. A martini bar was stocked, and a four-tier seafood tower sat under a canopy of ivy. Lou Reed, David Bowie and Bob Dylan played on the stereo until the game was turned to full volume.
The filmmaker Sofia Coppola said she is not a big sports fan, but could appreciate a Knicks playoff run.
“There’s nothing else like being in New York,” she said. “You have to really earn it. It weeds out the wimps, I think.”
Whoopi Goldberg, who actually played a Knicks superfan in the 1996 film “Eddie,” expected she would be able to get tickets to the next game.
“They’re always very kind to me,” she said of the Knicks organization.
Between the Knicks’ first finals game since 1999 and a starry night in the former Tribeca Grill space, there was also a bit of nostalgia for ’90s New York. (Robert De Niro opened the restaurant in 1990, and it closed last year.)
The dinner — with a choice of hanger steak or Dover sole — was the first event in the space under the ownership of Major Food Group, the team behind the Italian restaurants Carbone and Torrisi, which is preparing to bring a new American tavern and steakhouse to the location in 2027.
Around the room, Sarah Pidgeon — the “Love Story” star who portrayed Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy during her years living with John F. Kennedy Jr. in a Tribeca loft — laughed with Chloe Malle at a video Seth Meyers showed them.
“I feel so grateful to have learned about Carolyn and John and get to embody her, and be able to experience a bit of what New York was like in the ‘90s,” Pidgeon said.
At a table in the corner, which included Billy Crystal and Goldberg, De Niro bit into a piece of shrimp before Taylor sat down next to him. Nearby, Coppola and Olivia Munn chatted while passing a silver urn of potatoes.
Katie Holmes and Grace Gummer put on Knicks caps, and servers shot glances at the TVs to check the score — as the focus shifted to the action on TV rather than the stars in the room.
