Bloomberg Businessweek July 29, 2019sympathy for a guy trapped in an existence that isn’t the one
he would’ve chosen for himself. He would rather be busking
on the subway than in the owner’s box.” As one longtime MSG
follower said: “Maybe if Jim were just allowed to do his music
all his life, this could have been avoided.”TEAM EXECUTIVES AREN’T PERMITTED TO
communicate with free agents, or even comment publicly
about them, during the NBA season. To do so is known
as tampering and can result in fines. But in March, Dolan
tiptoed right up to that line on Michael Kay’s show. He wasn’t
just confident that top free agents were coming his way in
the summer of 2019; he seemed certain of it. “I can tell you,”
he said, “from what we’ve heard, I think we’re gonna have
a very successful off-season when it comes to free agents.”
Then Irving and Durant went to the Nets. Three days later,
Kawhi Leonard committed to the L.A. Clippers. The Knicks
spent$134million for six lesser players on short contracts.
Theblowback was swift. On Twitter it was a rehash of
draftnight,andthe famously quiet executive team felt stung
ease a brief statement by Mills, the president.
lewe understand that some Knicks fans could
e disappointed with tonight’s news,” he wrote,
wecontinue to be upbeat and confident in our
nsto rebuild the Knicks to compete for cham-
ships in the future, through both the draft and
etedfree agents.”
MSG’s stock dropped 3.4% overnight, erasing
rethan $200 million in value, and for days the
vailing narrative in sports media and among
was that the team is cursed. “The Knicks ran
pposed in NYC until 7 years ago, a team came to
oklyn,” ESPN personality Max Kellerman wrote
witter. “For the first time, the Knicks had to com-
YC’sNBA fans. Today that competition is over. The
finished as the #1 basketball team in town. The
NYC. It’s Jim Dolan’s fault.”
Thisideainparticular had to sting. It might never have
occurredtoDolan that the Nets threatened him in any way.
ButherewasBrooklyn, under General Manager Sean Marks
and head coach Kenny Atkinson, being held up as a model for
how you turn around a broken franchise—with smart drafting,
crafty trades, and good management. You build a culture that
people want to be a part of.
Sometime after the news of Irving and Durant broke, some-
one uncovered a recent photo of Durant on the Instagram feed
of former Knick Charles Oakley. This was thought to be loaded
with meaning. Everything about Oakley and the Knicks is. If
there’s a low point of Dolan’s tenure as Knicks owner, it was
almost certainly Feb. 8, 2017. That’s the night he threw Oakley
out of the Garden and then banned one of the most popular
players in Knicks history, saying he’d been drunk and abusive.
To humiliate Oakley in that manner was beyond the
pale for fans, and also for players: Several, including
LeBron James, posted messages of support on social media.Oakley told me that the Instagram post with Durant was just
a coincidence; the two ran into each other one night in the city.
He denied knowing about Durant’s decision ahead of time but
said that some agents he’d spoken to told him some players
“weren’t comfortable” coming to the Knicks. He also wondered
if D’Andre Jordan, a close friend of Durant’s who spent part of
the past season with the Knicks, might have played a role. “Once
they’re in the house, they see how messy it is,” Oakley says.
The fans, Oakley says, have cause to be upset. They were
told repeatedly by the organization, and by Dolan himself,
that this was the year. “This might be the only time in the next
10 years when this many marquee free agents come on the
market at the same time,” Oakley says. “And you don’t even
get a sniff of one.”
Oakley filed suit against Dolan after the MSG incident, and
until that’s settled or the Knicks owner repairs their relation-
ship in some other way, Oakley won’t be setting foot in the
Garden. He might go to some away games. “I’ll definitely be
at some Nets games,” he says.NOTABLY ABSENT FOR MOST OF THE
off-season excitement was Jim Dolan. He issued no comment
after the draft or free agency. His one public appearance as
Knicks owner was for an NBA Summer League game in Las
Vegas that was cut short by an earthquake. Mostly, he’s been
out on tour with his band in support of his latest album, The
Great Divide, inspired by Trump’s America. “It does seem that
there is more anger and hate than there has been in recent
times,” Dolan wrote in a blog post about the title track, “and I
hope this song will inspire folks to try a little harder to be tol-
erant of a different opinion than their own.”
Not even two weeks after the Nets signed his top targets and
stole the city’s tabloid covers, Dolan and the band were at a
small theater on Long Island for the 11th stop of the SiriusXM
Coffee House tour.
I couldn’t make it, but a Bloomberg reporter went in my
place. She was waiting for the show to start in a largely empty
room when she spotted Dolan, alone. She walked over and
handed him a business card.
What Dolan could have done at this point—what a man with
a history of embarrassing public spats probably should have
done—was decline comment and walk away.
Instead, he squared up. He told her he hadn’t authorized
an interview and flipped her notebook closed. He insisted the
night was about music, not him, and had no place in a profile,
even though he owns arguably the most famous music venue
on Earth and has played there.
Mostly, Dolan just wanted this reporter gone. He kept
telling her that she shouldn’t be there. He insisted that she
wasn’t allowed to be there, despite its being a concert orga-
nized by an international broadcasting company that sold
tickets through Ticketmaster. Eventually, he walked away and
summoned security. The reporter was escorted out. Later, an
MSG rep called to complain about the encounter. She hoped
we wouldn’t include it in the story. —With Polly Mosendz53g,
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