NAPRIL 10 OFTHISYEAR,19,872
humansofseeminglysoundmindpaida not
insignificantamountofmoneytofillMadison
SquareGardenfromfloortorafters.Thiswas,
mercifully,thefinalgameofa long,hopelessseasonforthe
NewYorkKnicks,theworstteamintheNationalBasketball
Association.TheabsolutebestcasefortheKnicksonthisnight
wastowinforjustthe18thtimein 82 games—thussavingthese
playersfromtheignominyoflosingmoregamesthanany
othergroupinfranchisehistory.
Thingswerebrieflypromising.TheDetroitPistonsscored
first,togoup2-0,buttheKnicksroaredbacktotieit 2-2.Then
Detroithita three-pointer—andnevertrailedagain.Atone
point,thePistons,playingwithouttheirstarforward,Blake
Griffin,ledby38.
Watching,asalways,wasteamownerJamesDolan,mostly
slumpedbackwithhisarmscrossedina foldingchairbetweena
youngguywithlonghairanda vaguelyfamiliarmodel.Former
NewYorkTimescolumnistSelenaRobertsoncewrotethatyou
cantellhowtheKnicksaredoingona givennightbytheangle
ofDolan’sslouch,andonthisnight—likemostnightsinthe2018-
19 season—itwaslimitedonlybythechair,whichdidn’trecline.
YoucancriticizemanythingsaboutDolanandhisowner-
ship,butthemanis accountable.He’sthereeverynight,in
thefrontrow,alongthebaseline,watchinghisteamplayter-
riblebasketball.“Ican’timagineanyownerwho’slostmore
sleepoverthelasttwodecadesregardinga sportsteamthan
Jimhas,”NBACommissionerAdamSilversaidlastyear.
“I could hide,” Dolan said when ESPN Radio host Michael
Kay asked him last year why he makes himself so present.
(Dolan talks to Kay and almost no one else in the media; he
declined to talk to me for this story and prohibited the entire
Knicks organization from doing so.) He could sit in a luxury
box. Or watch at home. But no. “A, I like the seats,” Dolan told
Kay. “And B, I want the fans to know that I’m engaged, that
ownership cares about what is happening.” Some NBA owners
skip games; others, he observed, live in an entirely different
state. Or, in the case of the Brooklyn Nets—majority-owned by
Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov—another country.
“Jim loves the Garden. He loves the teams. It’s his way of
letting the players and the fans know,” says Seth Abraham, a
former president of MSG Entertainment, one of the entities
Dolan controls as executive chairman and chief executive offi-
cer of Madison Square Garden Co. “But I would say he isn’t
having fun. It’s a crucible for him.” Dolan’s father, Charles, set
this trial in motion when he made James CEO of Cablevision
Systems Corp. in 1995. The company owned half of MSG and its
teams then (the Knicks and the Rangers, of the National Hockey
League) and bought the rest three years later. In 2009, MSG
was spun out, in large part to maximize the value of the sports
and live music businesses. And Jim Dolan remains in charge of
a highly profitable, publicly traded company that happens to
include a historically terrible basketball team.
Charles once said he’d chosen Jim to run the family busi-
ness mostly because “he was the only [child] who wanted it.”It wasn’tanobviousdecisionotherwise,especiallyconsidering
thatCharleshadputJimona planetoMinnesota’sHazelden
rehabclinicjusttwoyearsearliertotreatanalcoholanddrug
addiction.“Jimis a reallycomplicatedguy,”Abrahamsays.
InthelockerroomafterthatlastgameagainstthePistons,
theKnicks’beleagueredfirst-yearheadcoach,DavidFizdale,
addressedbeatreportersandsearchedforways,forthe65th
andfinaltime,toexplainwhya bunchofinexperiencedplay-
erslookedinexperiencedandlostbadly.“[ThePistons]didn’t
takeit lightbecausetheywereplayingtheyoungestandlast-
placeteamintheleague,”hesaid.
Bythatpoint,Dolanwaslonggone.Assoonasthefinalhorn
sounded,hewasoff,surroundedbya securitydetailenroute
tohiscar,whichtakeshimtoeitherhisManhattanapartment
orhishelicopter,whichferrieshimtoLongIsland’sGoldCoast,
wherehehasa sprawlingestaterightbyhisfather’s.
TheNBAhasa generouspostseason;morethanhalfthe
teams(16outof30)qualifyfortheplayoffs.ButtheKnicks,
forthesixthstraightyear,wouldn’tbeamongthem.Dolan
tookfullcontroloftheteamin2000.ThatseasontheKnicks
reachedtheEasternConferencefinals,markingtheendofa
goldenera.From 1987 to1999,theyqualifiedfor 13 consecu-
tiveplayoffs.Thenthewheelsfelloff.
In 19 seasonsunderDolan’swatch,theteamhasadvanced
tothepostseasonjustfivetimesandwona playoffseriesonly
once,in2013.Formanyofthoseseasons,theKnicksweren’t
terrible;theyweremerelymediocre.Which,intheNBA,is
arguablyworse.Terribleteamsgetthebestdraftpicks,whichis
the first step toward improving. But an average team gets only
average draft picks, which means there’s much less chance of
landing the kind of college star who can transform a franchise.
Middling drafts is only one problem. There’s also instabil-
ity: The Knicks have had 13 coaches in 18 seasons. And finan-
cial mismanagement: The team is notorious for overspending
on aging, injury-prone stars, which is especially bad because
NBA contracts are guaranteed and the league encourages par-
ity through a rigid cap on total team salaries. So giving big
contracts to players who don’t work out, in combination with
poor draft picks, is a recipe for misery. Or the Knicks.
But when Dolan walked out of the Garden after that miser-
able loss to the Pistons, he had, for the first time in a decade,
realhopethatthingscouldchange.TheKnickswouldgeta
topdraftpick,maybethefirstpick.Theyfinallyhadsalarycap
roomtospendontopplayers.Andtruesuperstars—including
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Kawhi Leonard—would be
available as free agents.
“In some ways this season is a blessing, even though it
doesn’t feel like it,” Dolan told Kay near the season’s end. “We
havea shotatreallybreakingthrough.”THE FACTS ARE WHAT THE FACTS ARE. THE
Knicks—whooccupytheworld’smostfamousarenaandare,
accordingtoForbes, themostvaluableNBAfranchise,worth
anestimated$4billion—havetheleague’sworstrecordinthe
21stcentury. Since 2000 they have a win percentage of .416,47BloombergBusinessweek July 29, 2019O
FRANK FRANKLIN/AP PHOTO