Mike D visiting the workers at MSG (Courtesy of MSG)

As Madison Square Garden continues to undergo renovations, Barclays Center has been dominating the spotlight in Brooklyn. But recently one Brooklyn resident, the Beastie Boys’ Mike D, stopped by The Garden to check out the transformation and visit with the workers.

His visit aired on the MSG Network's “The Garden Transformed: Year 2,” a five-part series that is documenting the top-to-bottom transformation. During his time back inside the arena, he reflected on the band's first show there, saying, “First time we played here it was opening for Madonna. We never dreamed that we’d get to walk in the employee entrance and The Garden. Then, of course, once we got on stage, we got booed a lot.”

Of course, the Beastie Boys later became well acquainted with the venue, and Mike D says they always had "sweaty palms about the prospect of playing in this building. Every time we came here we’d get chills because this is where we grew up, this is where I saw my first sporting event. Even if you didn’t grow up in New York, you grew up with awareness of so many incredible events that happened here.” And even though now he's got a hyped-up arena closer to home, don't expect him to turn his back on his original home team—he says "throughout a big part of our lives, it’s always been the Knicks."

During his visit he also talked about the late, great Adam Yauch, who directed a groundbreaking Beastie Boys concert documentary at the arena: “For MCA it was a huge deal to play here and to be in this building, and every time we’d tour, one of his only questions was ‘do we get to play The Garden?.’ That was obviously something very hard to go through, losing a great person and a close friend, but the love that New York showed as a whole, people on all kinds of levels opening up and doing incredible tributes. That would have meant a lot to him.”

We're told that Mike D will be back at the Garden tonight, rooting for his Knicks. And during their game against the Brooklyn Nets he'll get interviewed—so if you're in the house, you may hear some friendly trash-talking.

The episode of "The Garden Transformed" with Mike D will air after post-game coverage tonight, around 10:30 p.m. on the MSG Network.