James Dolan’s hope for his Knicks future isn’t what fans wanted to hear
It is exactly what you fear. This Knicks season despite its hiccups has been a good one so far, but fans were given a grim reminder that we still have a massive tumor sucking the life out of our franchise.
In an interview on WFAN, James Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers, was asked if he had any plans of selling the team amid recent controversy regarding the use of facial-recognition technology at Madison Square Garden. To my utter dismay, he gave the same answer he’s given year after year.
"“I have no plans whatsoever to sell at this point,” Dolan said. “I’m not retiring any time soon. It’s a family-controlled asset, so someone in the family will own it.”"
James Dolan reveals he has no plans to sell the Knicks amid facial-recognition controversy
James Dolan has faced many different controversies during his tenure as owner. Whether it’s a sexual harassment scandal or backlash from throwing Knicks legend Charles Oakley out of Madison Square Garden, Dolan has repeatedly refused to sell the team.
I will say this, for the past few years Dolan has seemingly taken a few steps back in terms of the day-to-day operations of the Knicks and has allowed Leon Rose and company to run the team. However, when your owner sees the team he owns as merely an “asset” it tells you Dolan cares more about his wealth than the on-court performance of the franchise.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise as Dolan idly watched the Knicks go from perennial contenders in the 90s to the laughing stock of the league during the 2000s and 2010s, a reputation that still haunts the Knicks today. Watch any nationally-televised Knicks game and you’ll hear commentators completely brush off anything positive related to the team and resort to the usual jokes about how we missed out on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Organizational competency starts all the way at the top. If you don’t think so, look at the state of the Lakers since Jeanie Buss took over. Aside from their championship run in the bubble, they’ve made the playoffs just once and it was a first-round exit. Look at the Clippers since Donald Sterling was forced to sell. They’ve been a contender in the Western Conference almost every year since.
Hopefully, whichever one of Dolan’s sons gets the Knicks passed down to them isn’t as stubborn as their father. Otherwise, the Knicks and its fans are damned to live and suffer under the Dolan empire.
