New York Knicks: Jeff Bezos wants to buy the team, says Charles Oakley

Could the New York Knicks become Amazon’s next purchase?

Speculative sales topics surfaced when James Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks, toyed with the idea of selling in a late 2018 interview. Then came the refuted reports of his desire to actually move forward with this $4 billion-plus valued franchise.

Nothing has arisen since, but count at least one businessman interested in purchasing the Knicks, pending Dolan sells the team.

On The Ringer’s Tough Chef With Charles Oakley (h/t Yahoo), the aforementioned former Knicks star said Jeff Bezos — yes, the one who knows Amazon — wants to buy the Knicks.

"“Jeff Bezos wants to buy the Knicks,” Oakley told The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Jason Concepcion on the set of his upcoming web series. “He was going to try do Amazon Long Island, and he went to Virginia, so he still wants to do some real estate in New York. Why not buy the Garden? That’s someone you can’t question. It’s not like he needs to get three or four other investors. He’s the investor himself.”"

Oakley has an infamously poor relationship with Dolan. In February 2017, Oakley from ejected from Madison Square Garden after a confrontation with Dolan, who temporarily banned the 55 year old from the arena.

Bezos is the founder of Amazon, which has grown into an international empire. Starting with books, his company grew into a technology giant that handles Amazon Web Services, video-on-demand streaming, and sells hundreds of thousands of products on its main website, with it famous for Prime.

While Oakley’s reveal of Bezos’ interest is the first of its public nature, it still holds intrigue because even if the Knicks sale does not cross $6 billion, that will only consume a fraction of Bezos’ worth of $131.4 billion, according to Forbes.

Imagine what kind of structure builds upon Bezos owning the Knicks, seriously. His innovations with Amazon could merge with the Knicks, with this franchise becoming a staple on Amazon.com for merchandise sales and promotion and even creating a unique experience for fans at the game.

Of course, that is all hypothetical. Dolan’s most recent comments, and the subsequent fan removal from MSG, should end the speculation, for now, unless he changes course and sells the team. He relinquished the New York Liberty in January to Joe Tsai, who’s also a co-owner of the Brooklyn Nets.

As for Bezos, he has the money to invest in not just the Knicks, but any sports franchise. If he stills wants a business to manage in the New York area, maybe him owning one of its sports teams comes true down the road.