{"id":258814,"date":"2026-06-08T03:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T03:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/258814\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T03:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T03:45:13","slug":"fat-joe-backs-very-misunderstood-james-dolan-after-knicks-owner-had-his-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/258814\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Joe backs ‘very misunderstood’ James Dolan after Knicks’ owner had his back"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Knicks coach Mike Brown and his players spoke to the media Sunday ahead of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, rapper Fat Joe sat in the back of the room at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

He teased Brown about his shoes. <\/p>\n

He shouted \u201cwooo\u201d after Jalen Brunson said talent evaluators missed \u201ceverything\u201d by allowing him to slip to the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft, where he was selected 33rd by the Mavericks.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before the cameras were pointing at Fat Joe, who shared his thoughts on the Knicks, who have a 2-0 lead over the Spurs and are just two wins away from winning their first title since 1973.<\/p>\n

He praised the Knicks for playing team basketball and exciting a city that hasn\u2019t been to the Finals in 27 years. <\/p>\n

He also paid his respects to Knicks owner James Dolan.<\/p>\n

\u201cShoutout to Mr. Dolan, greatest team owner in the game,\u201d Fat Joe said. \u201cVery misunderstood. They villainize Mr. Dolan like almost like a Bruce Wayne, like a Batman movie and this is Gotham City. This man, all these watch parties, this man takes care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fat Joe went on to reveal how Dolan had his back.<\/p>\n

\"RapperFat Joe is pictured at the Garden on June 7. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other day I was in Cleveland and I bought courtside [tickets] \u2014 this is a real story, guys \u2014 and they took it away when they knew it was Fat Joe<\/a>, the Knick fan,\u201d he said. \u201cMr. Dolan was so pissed, he said, \u2018Man, if we go Game 5, I\u2019m putting the owner up in the deck.\u2019 \u2026 I said, \u2018Man, this guy, he\u2019s for us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks went on to sweep their Eastern Conference finals series against the Cavaliers, apparently sparing Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert that indignity.<\/p>\n

Fat Joe went on to call New York \u201cthe place to be right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been hanging out with Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet,\u201d he said. \u201cThis guy has been hitting every block party all over New York City, just grabbing the mic, killing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fat Joe acknowledged that he wasn\u2019t sure the team was going to be this successful this season, especially after it fired coach Tom Thibodeau last June.<\/p>\n

\"ComedianJames Dolan is pictured during Game 2 between the Knicks and the Spurs on June 5. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little nervous with coach,\u201d he said. \u201cI ain\u2019t going to lie. I love Thibs, so when [Brown] came I said, \u2018What did we do?\u2019 The man [proved to me] that he\u2019s an incredible, incredible coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Knicks have won 13 playoff games in a row, the second-longest postseason streak in NBA history behind the 2017 Warriors, who won 15 in a row.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, Fat Joe is a believer now.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, if you analyze the numbers, we might be looking at the greatest team ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Knicks coach Mike Brown and his players spoke to the media Sunday ahead of Game 3 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[72034,21,37011,56784,80162,9,24,55,54,1104,56,9138,319],"class_list":["post-258814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-fat-joe","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-playoffs-2026","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ny","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}