THE EVIL MAN WHO OWNS THE KNICKS, JAMES DOLAN, HAS THE LOOK OF AN NBA CHAMPION
Despite his wrongdoing and losing through the years, Dolan built a powerhouse with Leon Rose and Mike Brown, and in a few days, he somehow could be waving to fans from New York's Canyon of Heroes
The worst man in the world is Donald Trump. Monday night, he will join the worst man in sports, James Dolan. That’s what social media is claiming while ignoring the hullabaloo inside Madison Square Garden. The Knicks, owned by Dolan, are about to win their first NBA championship since 1973. And the get-in ticket price prior to Game 3, for the worst seat, is more than $9,000 in a city that is boinked beyond bonkers.
Imagine the blur of Dolan hosting a week of wildness when Bloomberg News — started by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York — suggested he is “the worst owner in professional sports.” Imagine how he once tried to buy New York Magazine with Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. Imagine when he hired Isiah Thomas as team president before a jury said the Hall of Famer sexually harassed an employee he fired.
He is hated like no owner who ever ran a franchise, loathed by fans and media and former players. Charles Oakley still despises Dolan after he was banned from the Garden, which prompted commissioner Adam Silver to say this week, “It is a shame, in that I tried — Michael Jordan tried too — to broker peace between Charles and Jim Dolan. Our efforts were unsuccessful. I think it’s unfortunate for the NBA that this is an ongoing situation.” Once, Dolan told an angry 73-year-old fan that he’s “a sad person” with alcohol issues. In spite of the rampant detestation, he’ll be in the front row as he oversees one of the city’s biggest sports stories ever.
How is this possible?
A city always adores a champion, apparently, and this man is two victories from a long-desired crown. Dolan has struggled intensely running the Knicks, failing with Phil Jackson and other men until, oddly, he hired Mike Brown after he’d been fired four times in the league. The best deed was bringing in president Leon Rose, a former agent, who made sure his godson, Jalen Brunson, was heisted from Dallas before filling in the roster with ideal teammates. Somehow, Dolan finally figured it out after 28 years. And though Trump isn’t wise to attend as a native New Yorker — fans aren’t allowed to bring bags and will experience Secret Service-type screening — he’ll leave his fate to the owner.
“I’ve been a Knick fan for a long time, and I’m also a Jim Dolan fan. He’s a nice guy, OK?” Trump said. “He spent a long time wanting to win and he’s a competitive guy and he’s got a team that’s amazing. I’m happy for Jim because Jim has been fighting hard to produce such a team, so, yes, he’s invited me and I’m going.”
And if fans can’t afford the prices? “They can watch it on television,” Trump said. “It’s sort of semi-free to watch it on television, but that’s the way life goes.”
At 71, Dolan suddenly is entrenched as the town honcho. He predicted a title last week and leads the Spurs 2-0. Today, he says the Knicks are a symbol of the city. “It represents the people of New York City, yes. Absolutely. That’s New Yorkers, right?” he told the New York Post. “They’re tough, they’re gritty, they’re full of personality. But they’re also high-character individuals. You have a good sense of right and wrong and what’s fair and what’s not, and if you cross it with ’em, you’re gonna get a New York hello. That’s New Yorkers, right? We’re not subtle, but we’re very straightforward. New Yorkers, they love effort. They don’t just love winners, they love effort, sincere effort. And if there’s nothing else you’re getting from the Knicks, you’re getting sincere effort.”
He has been a subject lately in various publications, but Dolan usually says no to interviews. When the Knicks won the Eastern Conference, he didn’t accept the trophy — he wanted Brunson to hold it. Why did he hire Brown to replace Tom Thibodeau? “Leon convinced me,” he told the Post. “We knew we had a good coach in Thibs. We weren’t just going for a change, right? There was something we wanted, and we laid it out, really on paper, what we were looking for in a coach. I would say the No. 1 quality was collaborative, that was a big piece, somebody who strategically could avail himself of all the minds around him. And we were looking for flexibility. So we laid out all these sort of characteristics that we were looking for, and then I set Leon loose. And he interviewed a lot of different guys, and he came back with Mike, and I’m like, ‘OK.’ Leon did all the work. I just blessed it.”
Why does he love Brunson? “At first, I would have said — and I don’t think you can say this anymore — is how underestimated he was. I don’t think people are underestimating him anymore,” Dolan said. “They were underestimating him to now they’re double-teaming him, now he’s moving the ball around. And how focused he is — don’t get too high, don’t get too low — that’s a big part of Jalen.”
Of all people, Stephen A. Smith wants Trump to stay at the White House. Can we also ask Smith to remain at home? “I don’t want him there. It has nothing to do with politics, policy, or anything like that. It has everything to do with him disrupting and contributing at the same time to the chaos that’s going to be existing at Madison Square Garden,” Smith said. “If it were Barack Obama coming to the Garden, I would say, ‘Stay home.’ I have been covering sports for over 30 years. And I’m telling you right now, come Monday, for Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, I expect to see an environment I have never seen in my entire career.”
But for Trump and Dolan, fear is part of the fun. Has it occurred to the owner that he soon might he waving at fans from the Canyon of Heroes? Before Game 1, he said, “If we are able to at least take one of the first away games, then I think you can dream about that. At some point or another, I hope to be going down the Canyon of Heroes, yes.”
Will people boo him? Sure.
Will he laugh at them?
Sure.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host.