{"id":263798,"date":"2026-06-11T22:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263798\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:06:15","slug":"knicks-owner-blasts-nycs-handling-of-msg-during-nba-finals-fort-knox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263798\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks owner blasts NYC\u2019s handling of MSG during NBA Finals: \u2018Fort Knox\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks<\/a> and Madison Square Garden, made an unplanned stop at WFAN to deliver a message to fans and a scathing indictment of city leadership.<\/p>\n

The crackdown surrounding MSG for Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals has been staggering. The same frozen zone that was implemented when President Trump attended on Tuesday \u2014 stretching from 29th to 35th Street, north to south, and 6th Avenue to 8th Avenue, east to west \u2014 was kept in place for Game 4, even though the president is not in attendance.<\/p>\n

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Dolan didn\u2019t hold back when describing the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, like I said, you would think we were guarding… Fort Knox,\u201d Dolan said in a clip shared on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Dolan, the security apparatus included magnetometers, ticket verification checkpoints and officers turning away anyone who can\u2019t prove they have a reason to be in the area.<\/p>\n

Subway riders weren\u2019t spared either \u2014 they\u2019re being pushed outside the perimeter and forced to walk through the same gauntlet. Dolan estimates that once fans stop their cars or exit a train, it took no less than an hour to actually reach the building.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just ticketholders that felt the squeeze. Local businesses \u2014 bars, restaurants, pizza shops \u2014 have hired extra staff and stocked up for what should be the biggest night of the year.<\/p>\n

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Instead, they\u2019re watched customers get turned away at police checkpoints blocks from their front doors.<\/p>\n

The Knicks organization had outdoor watch parties planned, as they have throughout the entire postseason \u2014 events that drew tens of thousands of fans and passed without serious incident.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office, however, granted a permit capping attendance at 999 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about celebrating the Knicks at Madison Square Garden at the mecca of basketball. This is what the the mayor\u2019s office and the commissioner\u2019s office is trying to kill,\u201d Dolan said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want the celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolan was careful to separate rank-and-file NYPD officers from the decision-making. He praised the department\u2019s captains and chiefs and said point-blank they can handle this crowd.<\/p>\n

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The problem, in his view, sits squarely with Mayor Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tish \u2014 both of whom he says lack the experience to manage a moment this big.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have never managed anything like this before,\u201d he said, \u201cand it\u2019s like peanut butter and jelly sandwich \u2014 it\u2019s coming out the sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the \u201cfrozen zone\u201d stretching multiple blocks around Madison Square Garden in place, thousands of displaced fans instead converged on massive, city-sanctioned alternative hubs like Bryant Park, Central Park\u2019s Wollman Rink and the Brooklyn Bowl.<\/p>\n

MORE SPORTS COVERAGE<\/p>\n

Read the original article on NJ.com<\/a>. Add NJ.com<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden, made an unplanned stop at WFAN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4057,102268,44600,222,9,1104,56,63,65,64,2304,102269],"class_list":["post-263798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-city-leadership","tag-fort-knox","tag-james-dolan","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-president-trump","tag-scathing-indictment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263798","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=263798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}