You do not under any circumstances have to hand it to James Dolan
Sure, his team won a championship ... 26 years after he took over management and only after he reigned over one of the most deliriously stupid eras for any franchise in memory. The Knicks won in spite of James Dolan.
Sure, his team won a championship ... 26 years after he took over management and only after he reigned over one of the most deliriously stupid eras for any franchise in memory. The Knicks won in spite of James Dolan.
Good morning. Let's basketball.
The New York Knicks are NBA champions, and James "J.D." "Jimmy" Dolan was the first person to touch the Larry O'Brien Trophy after the game ended. He's being given credit for a warm little speech after the final buzzer (he had one good line delivered poorly) and a pre-playoffs motivational number posted online by the Jalen Brunson/Josh Hart podcast. To be clear, I have not watched that motivational speech because I know deep in my soul that you, my readers, would not wish that upon me. I don't know that I could sit with his voice for 15 minutes, honestly.
The Knicks' championship parade is today – the viewing areas were deemed "full" by NYPD two hours and 20 minutes before the start of the parade. Dolan will no doubt have some prominent role in the proceedings. He's been all over the media over the last few days already, including a WFAN interview. Some are giving him credit for helping build the team, even though by all accounts the biggest decision he made after hiring Leon Rose and William Wesley a few years back was pushing for the firing of Tom Thibodeau last summer. That worked out for the Knicks ... but only once the team's first four targets to replace Thibs noped out. Mike Brown, thankfully, saved the day. Some, most prominently my guy Rodger Sherman, are giving Dolan's Sphere project in Las Vegas credit for distracting Dolan enough while this championship Knicks team was being built. People in the Knicks' front office agree with the sentiment! In other words, the Knicks built a title team as soon as the boss went away to do something else.
Dolan has broken two pieces of news since Game 5. The first is that the Knicks will not go into the second apron to defend their title. Being cheap has actually never been a valid critique of Dolan – he's always spent money on the team, he just did it in idiotic fashion much of his tenure. But to announce that the team will not dip into the second apron for even their title defense season before the championship parade even hits is so dumb and emblematic of Dolan's whole style. Read the room! If you say "we will do whatever it takes to defend the title" right now and then don't do whatever it takes to defend the title in July or February, fans will react ... but it won't harsh their mellow amid a championship celebration. The goals for team management during the active celebration of such a cathartic, long-awaited triumph should be to a) get people to forget the worst times, b) commit to lifelong fandom (bonus if those fans part with their money to get on a ticket wait list or buy more merch), and c) make everyone believe that this is the new norm. Instead, Dolan's unforced error has at least some fans thinking about what his comment means for keeping Mitchell Robinson or extending Karl-Anthony Towns. It's too early for that!
The second piece of news from Dolan is that on behalf of the Knicks, he has accepted an invitation to the White House, which will soon be scheduled. In unrelated news, the President was booed mercilessly when shown on the screen during the national anthem before Game 3 (Dolan was right there! he heard it all and reacted with an uncomfortable grin!) and lost the 2024 election in the five boroughs to Kamala Harris 68% to 30%. Trump is unpopular all over the place. He is especially unpopular in immigrant-rich New York City, and by extension, unpopular with most Knicks fans. Dolan, meanwhile, is a close friend of Trump. He even got married at Mar a Lago decades ago. Do you understand what a terribly difficult position he's put the Knicks' players and staff in? They can kindly tell the boss – a veritable insane person who holds deep grudges and has installed a surveillance state in his arena – to buzz off because they don't want to be seen palling around with a fascist would-be authoritarian, or ... they can be seen palling around with a fascist would-be authoritarian, listen to him ramble about the glory days at Madison Square Garden before any of them were born, eat some Shake Shack and alienate a wide portion of their fans? The Knicks have an invincibly great vibe going right now ... and this idiot Dolan wants to do one of the only things that can ruin it, which is nudging his beloved players toward embracing a shrinking despot.
Maybe the players want to go to the White House. We know Mitchell Robinson wants to go. More power to him, and them. But seeing Jalen Brunson or O.G. Anunoby or Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges or Mike Brown (we know Karl-Anthony Towns will not be involved in any of that) hand Trump a Knicks jersey will be a "dead to me" moment for some subsection of fans, and a vibe-killer for a bigger subsection. That Dolan would put his players – the dudes that won his franchise and the City a title – in that position shows how myopic, self-serving and straight-up dumb he still is, champion or not.
With all due respect, which is none: screw James Dolan. He may sign the checks, but he didn't do this. The Knicks are champions in spite of him.
