Phil Godlewski had spent close to $750,000 on NBA Finals tickets. By Game 4, his group didn’t even have a hotel room. One hallway hello, Godlewski says. That’s what did it.
A 43-year-old Knicks superfan, Godlewski had booked one of two penthouses on the Ritz-Carlton’s 41st floor in NoMad, right on West 28th. His group of six, two of them his sons, ages nine and 11, checked in with no idea who their neighbor was. Nobody at the hotel said a word about it. They were there to watch games. That part seemed fine.
Tickets across the series ran near $750,000 total. That’s what it cost to be at the Finals like this. What it didn’t cover, apparently, was any warning about who else was living one door down.
Godlewski’s suite was on the Ritz-Carlton’s 41st floor. That’s where everything unfolded, hours before tip-off. (AP / Frank Franklin II)
One Word From Pavalonis
Around five o’clock, Ron Pavalonis, one of the six in Godlewski’s group, stepped out into the hallway. Victor Wembanyama was leaving the room right next door. Seven feet three, headed for the Garden. Pavalonis said something to him.
“I just simply say, ‘Good luck tonight, big guy,’” Pavalonis recalled. He added one reason: “Because at the end of the day, for me, I am a superfan of sports.” Pavalonis went back inside.
Someone knocked ten minutes later. A manager appeared. The group had to go, she told them. All of them, and right now.
Out In Under Ten Minutes
No reason came first. Godlewski pushed for one. “I’m sorry, but you guys are going to have to leave the premises,” the manager allegedly told him. When he asked why, she said his group had been “harassing and waiting for the players to exit their rooms.”
That wasn’t right, Godlewski said. Show us the footage, he told her. She said there weren’t any cameras on that floor. He looked up, right above her head, at a camera mounted on the wall. He says she knew it was there.
Twenty thousand dollars, gone. He pushed for a refund and got nothing. No explanation beyond the order to leave, no apology either, nothing from the hotel at all.
Pavalonis (left) and Godlewski. According to Pavalonis, nothing beyond a good-luck wish was said. (Photo from Godlewski)
No Warning, No Cameras, No Apology
Of everything Godlewski has said about this, the part he keeps coming back to is simpler than the eviction itself. The hotel never told his group they were sharing a floor with Wembanyama. No instructions. No request to stay inside. Not a heads-up of any kind.
“If they had said, listen, you’re staying on the same floor as one of the players, you cannot engage with the player,” Godlewski explained. “We would have been like, OK, no problem.” That would have been the end of it, he says.
The city was already on edge heading into Game 4. Wembanyama’s shove of Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in Game 3 had been covered by outlets including Larry Brown Sports. That made him the most-hated visitor the Garden had seen all postseason. Somewhere after that same game, a Spurs fan got assaulted outside the arena.
“Not only did they not block out the hotel, but they put us on the same frigging floor as Victor Wembanyama,” Godlewski said. “What sense does that make? If you don’t want anyone around the Spurs, don’t book the penthouse directly next to him. It was a huge mistake on their part.”
He Booked A New Room And Went Anyway
Godlewski didn’t miss the game. After getting tossed from the Ritz, he booked a new room at the Trump International on Central Park West, for 3 grand. Then he showed up at Madison Square Garden. As far as he can tell, each of his Game 4 tickets cost almost $125K.
There has been no official statement from The Ritz-Carlton. No one on Wembanyama’s side has either. Multiple outlets have reached out to both sides. Still nothing. Godlewski says he isn’t holding his breath for a response.
An Eleven-Year-Old’s Hero, Burned
Godlewski’s younger son, the eleven-year-old, had been a Wembanyama fan going into all this. A signed jersey, three thousand five hundred dollars’ worth, had been hanging framed in their house. It wasn’t hanging there anymore, not after what happened on the ride home. Whatever goodwill Wembanyama had with that kid didn’t survive the night.
The kid asked his dad if he could burn it when they got home. Godlewski said yes. An autographed Wembanyama jersey, originally $3,500, is now ash.
