{"id":699926,"date":"2026-05-28T11:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/699926\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T11:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:39:08","slug":"the-knicks-are-in-the-nba-finals-but-owner-james-dolan-is-far-from-a-new-york-hero-new-york-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/699926\/","title":{"rendered":"The Knicks are in the NBA finals. But owner James Dolan is far from a New York hero | New York Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most stunning part about the Knicks snapping their 27-year NBA finals<\/a> drought isn\u2019t the 22\u00bd-point average margin of victory they posted over an 11-game playoff winning streak, or New Yorkers somehow resisting the urge to tear the city apart in celebration, or even the fact that neither the iPhone nor Facebook existed back in 1999.<\/p>\n

No, the most surprising aspect when they sealed the Eastern Conference finals<\/a> on the Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 home court was the Knicks\u2019 star guard, Jalen Brunson, talking about his pride in a winning culture that \u201cstarts with Mr Dolan\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to shout out the boss when cornered in public, but placing Knicks owner James Dolan at the very top of the list of people responsible for the team\u2019s dramatic turnaround feels like thanking the iceberg for the movie Titanic. The Knicks\u2019 redemption arc doesn\u2019t hit as hard, or quite deliver the same catharsis, without Dolan\u2019s special blend of chaos and dysfunction.<\/p>\n

This may come as a shock to fans boarding the Knicks bandwagon, but before Kylie Jenner and the influencer set started turning up courtside, Dolan had spent decades in a race with Dan Snyder (formerly of the NFL\u2019s Washington Commanders) and Bob Nutting (of MLB\u2019s Pittsburgh Pirates) for the title of worst owner in US sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Bleacher Report described him<\/a> as \u201cmasterful at destroying two beloved franchises\u201d, the second being the NHL\u2019s Rangers, who haven\u2019t won the Stanley Cup since 1994. In a lengthy interview<\/a> with ESPN\u2019s Ian O\u2019Connor in 2018, Dolan said Knicks fans who spotted him around town would \u201cshout something horrible and run away. It\u2019s not fun.\u201d In another digression about selling the team, an idea he has long insisted is well off the table, Dolan spoke more urgently about his responsibility to shareholders than to fans.<\/p>\n

At the turn of the century, Dolan was a New York nepo baby poster boy \u2013 a recovering addict who inherited a multibillion-dollar cable TV and sports empire and ran it with a rumpled authority that carried through even to his personal presentation: he painted himself as the Long Island boy who owns Madison Square Garden and once had his blues-rock band, JD & The Straight Shot, open for the Eagles. For Knicks fans, he was a byword for chronic mismanagement more commonly known as \u201cJim Fucking Dolan\u201d. He traded away franchise cornerstone Patrick Ewing in 2000 and signed Allan Houston to a $100m extension that prompted a league exemption<\/a> for teams buried under bad contracts. Under Dolan\u2019s ownership, the Knicks found themselves in salary-cap purgatory time and again, something that left them too constrained to pursue top free agents and too mediocre to rebuild through the draft.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more. Under Dolan, the Knicks traded for middling center Eddy Curry despite his documented heart condition<\/a>, hired Phil Jackson a decade too late for the wrong job, and reportedly benched the cheerleading squad<\/a> during a grim loss to Charlotte (a team source later denied the story was true). Rather than attend the 2017 draft, which took place in New York, Dolan chose to play a JD & The Straight Shot gig across town<\/a>. While we\u2019re on the subject of his music endeavors, in 2018 he wrote a song<\/a> about not knowing his former friend Harvey Weinstein was a sexual predator.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the treatment of the fans themselves. Knicks fans who voice frustration with Dolan \u2013 whether on picket lines outside Madison Square Garden or during in-game \u201csell the team\u201d chants \u2013 risk permanent banishment<\/a>. Famously, MSG security denied Spike Lee entry to the Garden<\/a> on a whim in 2020 when he arrived through a gate reserved for Garden employees and media \u2013 as had been his custom for nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n

Beat writers are careful not to be too critical of Dolan or the team, as MSG staff hawkishly manage access. In a recent interview with investigative reporter Pablo Torre, one Knicks beat reporter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested the team\u2019s media workroom may be bugged<\/a>. Even former players tread lightly: Charles Oakley has been a ghost at MSG<\/a> since he was hauled out of the arena for heckling Dolan at a 2017 game.<\/p>\n

Former Knicks star Charles Oakley was removed from Madison Square Garden after he criticized James Dolan. Photograph: Frank Franklin II\/AP<\/p>\n

Dolan\u2019s abiding loyalty to Detroit Pistons great Isiah Thomas was another staggering low point. In 2007, Dolan\u2019s Madison Square Garden company was ordered to pay $11.6m<\/a> to settle a lawsuit brought by a female team executive who had alleged sexual harassment by Thomas; Dolan, who had reportedly fired the woman, personally contributed $3.5m to the settlement. In 2015, Dolan brought Thomas on to the New York Liberty<\/a> \u2013 his WNBA franchise. Former NBA commissioner David Stern, noting both the controversy and the Knicks\u2019 lack of success during Dolan\u2019s tenure, described him<\/a> as \u201cnot a model of intelligent management\u201d. (Dolan sold the Liberty to billionaires Joe and Clara Wu Tsai<\/a> in 2019).<\/p>\n

Only the tools Dolan uses to indulge his worst instincts have become more intelligent. Last month, a damning report in Wired<\/a> revealed the extent to which Dolan has transformed his vast entertainment empire into a surveillance state, one that uses biometric surveillance technology to track perceived enemies in real time \u2013 from Oakley to a graphic designer who sold \u201cBan Dolan\u201d T-shirts years ago to a fan whom Dolan personally deemed a security risk, monitoring her movements down to drink orders and bathroom trips before banning her from the Garden. MSG dismissed the Wired report, which stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a former member of the company\u2019s security team, as \u201creckless\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is hard to look at Dolan\u2019s digitally driven paranoia without being reminded of another New York nepo baby poster boy. Sure enough, it was only a matter of time before Donald Trump climbed back aboard<\/a> the Knicks bandwagon, confirming reports that he plans to attend the finals<\/a> at the Garden next week \u2013 another instance of a major sporting event being conscripted for his presidential stagecraft<\/a>. Of course Trump made sure to add that the Knicks \u201chave really suffered for years\u201d, and that he was \u201cinvited by numerous people\u201d including Dolan. Incidentally, Dolan, who married his second wife at Mar-a-Lago<\/a>, remains a fierce Trump supporter despite the president undercutting his grand plans to redevelop Madison Square Garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So how does one of the worst owners in sports wind up not only riding herd on the NBA\u2019s hottest team, but drawing credit for the turnaround? Well, Dolan may have his faults, but cheapskating the Knicks is not one of them. After burning through one basketball executive after another \u2013 from Thomas to Jackson to Indiana Pacers architect Donnie Walsh \u2013 Dolan turned to Leon Rose, a former agent who had closed a number of client-favorable deals with the Knicks, Curry\u2019s albatross contract among them. Dolan then largely stayed out of the way as Rose reshaped the roster: trading for Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns, drafting the rangy center Mitchell Robinson, and ponying up to bring in Brunson from the Dallas Mavericks in an above-market deal that, in retrospect, looks like one of the NBA\u2019s biggest bargains. Broken clock and all that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s to the point now where any fantasy about this Knicks team winning the NBA title has to reconcile with the jarring reality of the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy being handed to Dolan \u2013 a truly strange image to consider. And while some fans now politely applaud Dolan for finally getting the Knicks on the right track and may even endure a JD & The Straight Shot performance to mark the occasion, most are not inclined to excuse the years of emotional punishment it took to get here. After the Knicks came back to beat the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the East finals, Dolan gave away an Anunoby-signed game ball to a young fan<\/a> waiting for him outside MSG afterward. Lucky kid can hardly fathom the Knicks\u2019 misery Trump speaks of so authoritatively.<\/p>\n

In the 2018 ESPN interview, Dolan said he didn\u2019t think he would take part in a parade if the Knicks ever won a championship. Some free advice: stick with that plan. It\u2019s one thing to thank the boss after a game in Cleveland \u2013 which, to be fair, coach Mike Brown (another brilliant Rose addition) did as well. But in New York, celebration and grievance can\u2019t help but ride the same subway car. True blue Knicks fans can forgive, but they shouldn\u2019t soon forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most stunning part about the Knicks snapping their 27-year NBA finals drought isn\u2019t the 22\u00bd-point average margin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-699926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}