Joel Embiid pleaded with 76ers fans to keep their home playoff tickets against the Knicks.
One diehard 76ers fan named Matt, as uncovered by the Philadelphia Inquirer, is taking extreme measures to keep Knicks fans from making Xfinity Mobile Arena a de facto Madison Square Garden South, or at least make New Yorkers pay more.
His plan? Get Sixers fans to buy fully refundable Amtrak tickets ahead of Sunday’s Game 4 before canceling the train trip shortly before the 3:30 p.m. ET tip-off in order to increase the prices for New Yorkers. According to the Inquirer, he posted his idea to Reddit on r/Sixers to get fans to join in on his ploy.
For curious Knicks fans, the estimated cost — as per a search conducted by The Post on the Amtrak website on Friday evening — is just shy of $300 for a round-trip ticket.
But compared to the $500-plus tickets for potential Games 5 and 7 at the Garden — according to the resaler TickPick — New Yorkers who want to trek to Philly won’t be breaking the bank for game tickets, or at least have to give an arm and a leg, comparatively.
TickPick has prices as low as $159 for Friday night’s Game 3 and $170 for Game 4. As The Post’s Zach Braziller reported as of Thursday night, 59 percent of tickets sold on TickPick for Game 3 came from accounts linked from New York and New Jersey.
Embiid, after the Sixers beat the Celtics in the first round, wanted to make sure Philly fans were doing their part to make Xfinity feel like a home. Because in 2024, when the Knicks beat the Sixers in the first round, New Yorkers were loud and made their presence felt in the City of Brotherly Love.
“Last time we played the Knicks, it felt like [Philadelphia] was Madison Square Garden East. We’re going to need the support,” Embiid said then. “Don’t sell your tickets. This is bigger than you. We need you guys.
“Knicks fans travel, they buy tickets. There’s going to be people who will sell the tickets because they need the money. Don’t do it, we need you guys. We need the support, and we need them to be extremely loud. If you need money, I’ve got you.”
The “war” between the two cities has even transferred to other spaces, as a few New York eateries have rebranded Philly Cheesesteaks with different names for the duration of the playoff series. And though the 76ers are down 2-0 in the series, Philadelphia scored a win this week when members of The Post picked cheesesteak over New York’s chopped cheese in a taste test.
