New York Knicks: James Dolan’s most embarrassing PR moments

A list of James Dolan’s most embarrassing moments in public relations.

There is a strange relationship between New York Knicks fans and James Dolan. While many would give their right hand – the same ones they used to pump the air in celebration when Patrick Ewing was leading the team deep into the playoffs each season – to see Dolan sell the team, many also spend their time on Twitter, using that same right hand, to defend the man against the media.

Knicks fans are in a broken relationship, they know it sucks, which is why they don’t need anyone else to tell them it does.

So if you’re a Knicks fan that navigated to this headline, I understand you enter with some trepidation and/or frustration. Trust me, I am one of you.

But the point of this article is not so much to talk about what we already know: James Dolan is a terrible owner of the Knicks. It is to pinpoint an area of obvious weakness, which, quite frankly, has nothing to do with the team winning basketball games on the court.

In other words, these blunders could have happened whether the team was winning 20 games each season, or sixty. People laugh at them more because they are attached to a losing franchise.

Before we get into the list, it is important for people to understand how obsessive the Knicks owner is about even mundane details related to public relations. The social media team was afraid to tweet the final score of games the Knicks lost this season—think about that. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Knicks PR reaches out to me after writing this article (I know you’re watching).

With that said, let’s get into James Dolan’s most embarrassing PR moments.

James Dolan embarrassing moments: Issuing a statement about not signing Richard Jefferson

After Richard Jefferson indicated on a Brooklyn Nets telecast that he was offered a contract with the Knicks but instead decided to retire, the Knicks thought it was a good idea to issue an official team statement to refute the NBA player turned commentator.

Jefferson made the comments while broadcasting a Knicks vs Nets game in November 2019.

"“I refused to play for the Knicks,” Jefferson said. “Like, Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin, they don’t really care. Me, I was the one person that said, ‘Knicks? No, I’ll retire.’ That’s why I retired. They were the one team that offered me a job. I decided to retire.”"

The former Nets forward and NBA champion with the Cleveland Cavaliers retired after the 2017-18 season, which would have put the alleged offer from the Knicks during the free agency period when the team was looking to add veteran players on short-term deals for David Fizdale’s first season with the team, or potentially before the 2019-20 season.

Less than 24 hours after Jefferson’s claim, the Knicks released a statement that said, “For clarification purposes, it is not true that the New York Knicks offered Richard Jefferson a contract in either the summer of 2018 or 2019.”

Whether Jefferson was telling the truth, or taking a dig at the Knicks doesn’t really matter. The fact that the Knicks issued a statement to contradict an off-hand comment from an NBA telecast shows you the depths Dolan will reach to settle a score. There’s no PR firm in America who would have advised him to do this.

James Dolan embarrassing moments: Banning a fan for telling him to sell the team

The best way to beat a bully is to stand up to a bully. At least, that’s the logic of Knicks fans who use their platform as paying customers at Madison Square Garden to tell the owner to sell the team. Just don’t yell, “Sell the team” too loudly.

While there were a variety of reasons to fire Steve Mills as team president this past season, many believe the final straw came when the Garden faithful loudly chanted for James Dolan to sell the team.

A more direct confrontation occurred in March 2019 when Dolan banned a fan from attending Knicks games after he was “heckled” and told to sell the team.

The MSG executive chairman later claimed the act was a set-up and he was planning to invite the fan back to the Garden with VIP treatment until he learned it was a planned act intended to embarrass him. As Dolan admitted, it would have been easiest if he just kept walking into the tunnel rather than responding to the paying customer.

Dolan, who rarely provides public interviews, went on ESPN radio in New York to defend his story. He even provided video evidence of the fan moving to different sections in the Garden to record the incident. Which leads us to the next most embarrassing moment …

James Dolan embarrassing moments: Bragging about free agents on ESPN Radio

As every reporter with an NBA media credential told Knicks fans that Kevin Durant was all but certain to sign with the team in July, and could possibly bring additional free agents with him, it was an interview with James Dolan on ESPN radio that many point to as the moment when Knicks fans were bamboozled into thinking they were getting lucky over the summer of 2019.

As you can see, some of these “embarrassing” moments have context.

What makes this moment a complete PR disaster for Dolan was that he originally appeared on the interview to defend himself against banning a Knicks fan for telling him to sell the team. After claiming he was “ambushed” by the fan, providing ESPN with surveillance footage of the fan’s movement in the arena, he then talked about the Knicks team, needing to read from a piece of paper in front of him to remember the names of young players on the roster.

It was after all of this, he made the bold proclamation that he felt confident the Knicks would do well in free agency. The team would later fall into another PR blunder when they released a statement on the eve of free agency essentially apologizing for their failure to recruit any star players.

James Dolan embarrassing moments: The Charles Oakley dispute

While public opinion has quickly shifted against Charles Oakley, when the rugged forward was still the Apple of Knicks fans nostalgic eyes, James Dolan had him forcefully removed from Madison Square Garden in the middle of a nationally televised game, and later called him an alcoholic.

The Knicks have a history of turning away from franchise legends who don’t play to Dolan’s rhythm. Until the recent pandemic, it was considered blasphemous to include any promotion of Jeremy Lin in the halls of Madison Square Garden. The owner felt betrayed when Lin signed a poison-pill offer sheet with the Houston Rockets following the season that brought Linsanity to New York.

Oakley represented another example of a player who was popular among the fans and treated as an outcast by Mr. Dolan. The fact he later accused Patrick Ewing’s favorite teammate of being an alcoholic, without any evidence, made the matter even worse.

Charges brought against Oakley from the incident were later dropped. The NBA star tried to sue the Knicks for assault, battery, and defamation, but his lawsuit is now on the verge of collapse in appeals court.

It would be better for everyone if the whole mess disappeared. Instead it’s a public relations nightmare that keeps finding its way back into the headlines.

James Dolan embarrassing moments: Using MSG surveillance to refute Spike Lee

Knicks fans have polarizing opinions on just about everything, whether it’s the future of Frank Ntilikina or the role of Spike Lee as de-facto spokesman of the fan base.

While some believe Spike’s public comments only add more drama to a franchise that has plenty to worry about without the famed director stirring the fire, another PR disaster emerged when perhaps the biggest ticket spender in Knicks history was rudely informed by security that he was using the wrong entrance which he claimed he had been using for 28 years.

Even if you give the Knicks the benefit of the doubt on this one. Does Spike Lee really need a special entrance? Can he enter the games like everyone else? The team’s response to Lee’s criticism made the situation worse.

The same team that waited until every other NBA team had issued a statement condemning racism and police brutality decided to release a statement refuting Spike Lee’s account of using the “wrong” entrance to MSG.

And that’s not all. The team also included photos to show the instructions above the entrance in question and to reveal a handshake between Dolan and Lee on the night in question. It sounds like something stolen from the script of a cheap crime drama, but it’s just Knicks PR working at the direction of James Dolan.

Lee recently compared the Knicks owner to Donald Trump in talking about how the team reacted to the George Floyd murder, which we will get into next.

James Dolan embarrassing moments: Refusing to issue a statement about police brutality

James Dolan’s latest public relations disaster comes at a time when businesses, athletes, professional sports teams, and individuals are using their platforms in amazing ways to shine a light on social injustices in this country.

The Knicks had an opportunity to act as leaders in the NBA discussion about racism and how to promote positive change by pointing to their impressive record of hiring African Americans in high-ranking positions throughout the organization. Last season, they became the first team in the league to have a black president, general manager, and head coach. They recently hired businessman Steve Stoute as an influential voice to strengthen their brand, particularly among athletes.

But instead of celebrating their diversity and issuing a statement to condemn racism, as nearly other team in the NBA did before them, they turned the whole situation into a PR disaster.

First, there was silence. Then there were an internal email that Dolan sent to his employees explaining the silence. And then another leaked email. And then finally a bland statement promoting “positive change” that looked like it was written in the time it took for a PR member to ride the elevator to Mr. Dolan’s office.

Whether you believe the Knicks were right or wrong for waiting to release a statement, from a PR perspective, it turned into a complete embarrassment for the franchise.

Knicks Rumors: 3 forwards linked to New York in free agency

As the New York Knicks prepare for the offseason, three forwards have already been linked to them in free agency.

Former NBA players Caron Butler and Kendrick Perkins have already spoken out against the Knicks poor response. An NBA insider says it is “devastating” to their hopes of recruiting future players. It was just another example of how Dolan refuses to listen to the PR staff assembled around him in making public-facing decisions that ultimately cast a dark shadow over an already beleaguered ownership tenure.