If you’re like me, you’re always looking to invest in something. If you’re like me, you don’t quite have $3 billion laying around to invest. I mean, I’ve got the money, I’d just have to move it away from other investments. I have a lot tied up in Kohl’s Cash and Baskin Robbins gift cards. But, if you’re like me, and you love sports, and you’re not like me because you have $3 billion available, you may have considered buying your favorite sports team. Can you actually impact the team you love by buying it? Or do you just get the luxury of box seats for every game?
My friend recently wondered why the Buffalo Bills were not going to make their stadium a dome. Another friend made a great suggestion.
Who is the most important person in a sports franchise? Is it the star player? Is it the coach? Could it be the general manager? Like in the Apple TV original, Ted Lasso, could it possibly be the equipment manager? Thank you to Apple TV for sponsoring this week’s issue. Are you using HBO? Think again. The people who started that aren’t very chill as you are about to read. Apple TV: Remember when we made you all buy dongles? The dongle was the “Lift Yourself” by Kanye West of products. We don’t even really need to sponsor a newsletter. We make it, you buy it. Use code “Daily Dispatch Dongle” for 20% off literally anything. We are making so much money off you it doesn’t even matter at this point.
One could argue, for better or worse, the owner might just be the most impactful. Though they never throw a pass, shoot a shot, or call a play, the decisions an owner makes may well affect everyone’s ability to do their jobs well.
We’ve seen examples of good ownership in the NFL in examples like Robert Kraft and Jeffrey Lurie. We have seen the culture Joe Lacob established in Golden State keep them atop the NBA for years. But we’ve also seen examples of bad ownership. Notable examples like Dan Snyder and Donald Sterling whose personal failings disproportionately affected the general managers, coaches, and players. We have seen the poor choices made by owner Seth Winton in Madden ‘23 when I took the Buffalo Bills, relocated them to Dublin, Ireland, overspent on a new stadium, traded Stefon Diggs for a younger WR and ostracized the fan base.
There is one particular bad owner I would like to highlight this month: James Dolan. To Dolan’s defense, before we begin, he has not had quite the same moral failings as Snyder and Sterling. Sterling is a racist. Snyder has borderline too many moral failings to list.
For our story, let’s travel to the home of my younger brother; New York City baby!!
While we are traveling, let’s travel back in time to February 2012. The bad New York Knicks were playing the worse New Jersey Nets. Late in the 1st quarter of a game that should have been entirely forgotten by history, the Knicks subbed in their backup point guard’s backup. Way down the bench. The player we are talking about was not drafted. He was sleeping on a teammate’s couch. A Taiwanese Harvard graduate named Jeremy Lin. Linsanity took the world by storm. Books were written about it. Even non-basketball fans knew about it. This went on for about 2 months as Lin carried that bad team to the playoffs. Then his contract expired. Obviously he was re-signed as he was the best thing to happen to this Lemony-Snicket-esque franchise. Wrong. The Knicks let him walk.
Who was it that chose not to bring Lin back? Who had been running a team so poorly that a 3rd string point guard playing well was international news compared to the ineptitude the team had been going through? Our main character: James Dolan. The same guy who has started using facial recognition technology to keep his enemies out of the venues he owns like Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. Enemies like Knicks legend Charles Oakley and a young girl scout who is related to someone who works somewhere he doesn’t like. Over the course of this article, we will see how he inherited the team from daddy, oversaw them as they have had the worst record in the NBA (even worse than the Charlotte Hornets), burn through 13 head coaches, start his own rock band, go to war with the media, send Knicks legends out of the Garden in handcuffs, blacklist fans, and make this historic franchise a laughing stock.
The 90’s Knicks were a powerhouse with Ewing and Oakley. THey were a high point in the legacy of a historic franchise. Now seems like a good time to point out, New York Knicks is short for Knickerbockers. This is officially the 3rd reference to the word “knickerbockers” over the course of the last 3 issues. Anyways, in the 90’s the Knick(erbocker)s were dominant. This changed when Dolan took over in 1999. To quote a song Dolan wrote and recorded for his band JD & The Straight Shot, “Oh I own a basketball team, for most people that would be a dream. For a trust fund kid it’s a living hell. Always some asshole telling me to sell.” I fully expect to see JD & The Straight Shot on all of y’all’s Spotify Wrapped this year.
How did Dolan inherit the Knicks? Let’s all pause and watch the entirety of the show Succession (I haven’t finished it yet.) But so far it sounds similar to the plot of Dolan’s life. James (Jim) Dolan’s father Chuck Dolan, is the founder of CableVision and HBO; Jim is the handpicked successor. Jim started at the lowest rung of the company ladder and apparently “earned” his way up. After years climbing the ranks (and a trip to rehab), Jim got a new assignment from his dad: running the New York Knicks.
In 1999, Jim Dolan took over the Knicks. Before their relationship officially began, however, the Dolan family had already made a poor impression on the Knicks fanbase. You know what they say, you only get one chance at a first impression (unless you wear a clever disguise). For a while, the Dolans owned the rights to broadcast Yankees games. MSG Cable Network (before the Dolan’s owned Madison Square Garden) was owned by someone else and was competing with CableVision to broadcast more live sports. When MSG poached the rights to broadcast Yankees games away from CableVision, the Dolans were pissed. They had a separate deal with MSG that allowed them to broadcast Knicks and Rangers home games at MSG before they owned the arena and both teams. As a way to get back at MSG, they just stopped broadcasting Knicks and Rangers games in the middle of the season. This obviously infuriated fans. Knicks fans hated the Dolans. The Dolans didn’t want to be put in that position again. They tried to buy the Yankees. That failed. They tried to buy the Mets. That failed. Both fan bases are probably thanking their lucky stars.
Before I continue to discredit Jim, I will say, he did overcome addictions after rehab and has given generously to help others. However, he has a terrible habit of accusing anyone he doesn’t like of struggling with alcohol addiction. To be serious for a moment, this is a really insensitive thing to do. Applying your own shortcomings to others to discredit them so you can see yourself as on an equal playing field rather than try to hear or see their perspective.
In the intro I mentioned he did not have quite the moral failings of Dan Snyder or Donald Sterling. That said, in the third year of his ownership, he brought in Isaiah Thomas to run the team as its president. This eventually led to a poor handling of a delicate situation. Isaiah Thomas quickly brought in Stephon Marbury in a blockbuster trade and fired the coach. A defining trait of the Knicks was hiring and firing coaches as quickly as possible. They brought in head coach Larry Brown for 5 years and $50 Million. He did pretty good. But, he didn’t go to team events like James Dolan music shows and was fired after 1 season. Eventually, Dolan made Isaiah Thomas president, coach, and GM. They missed the playoffs, but Dolan was pleased enough with the progress of the team to announce Thomas would keep his job(s) and be back next year. However, something off the court was brewing.
In the middle of Isaiah Thomas’ first season as head coach, an MSG executive filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him and MSG. She claimed she brought her complaints to management and, rather than listening to her, they fired her. I read through some of the trial transcripts so you don’t have to. Anucha Browne Sanders, the woman who brought the complaint and lawsuit, was not doing too well during the trial as most of her case was based on hearsay. That was until Dolan took the stand. When asked who decided to fire Anucha Browne Sanders (now just Anucha Browne), he said, “I did.” When asked if he consulted with legal counsel before firing her he said, “No. In fact, I specifically did not consult council.” When asked if he knew what retaliation means he said, “I know what retaliation means” and basically described it as firing someone for making a formal complaint. When asked if she made a formal complaint, Dolan said, “Yes.” The whole testimony was arrogant and tone deaf.
The following season did not go well. Isaiah Thomas was fired. Dolan later hired his old buddy Isaiah Thomas (who was sued for sexual harassment) to run the New York Liiberty, his women’s basketball team. In what world would anyone think this was a good idea?
The main thing I want to talk about with Jim Dolan is yet to come, but we see his paranoia and hostility towards anyone who doesn’t say or do exactly what he wants said or done throughout his time as Knicks owner. He has a reputation for having reporters physically followed, spied on, and forced out of public gatherings if he doesn’t like what they report. And what should they report over the last 20+ years? How do you make anything sound positive during such dysfunction?
It is not only reporters he has followed and thrown out. Dolan once had Knicks legend Charles Barkley thrown out during a game because Oakley was getting more attention and praise. This severely distracted the Knicks players who were winning at the time and eventually lost. Dolan treats Madison Square Garden as a king treats his courtyards: kiss my ass or go to hell. Dolan discussed the event after Oakley claimed he said nothing to provoke Dolan or his staff. Dolan put out a statement saying, “Charles has a problem with anger….he may have a problem with alcohol, we don’t know.” This is not the first time Dolan has accused anyone he disagrees with of having a problem with alcohol. He goes on to say “…If you’re being abused, don’t be embarrassed, just refuse to be abused.” This coming from a man who has been accused of screaming at MSG employees, backed his friend during a sexual harassment lawsuit, and sat on Harvey Weinstein’s board as recently as 2016.
Dolan must have gotten a serious hard on from having Oakley removed because, from then on, one thing Dolan has been most well known for is removing fans, media, and celebrities from Madison Square Garden for any reason he sees fit. I’ve alluded to it before, but the following story is one of Jim Dolan’s worst PR moments. Kelly Conlon was excited to take her daughter, along with some of the other girls in her daughter’s girl scout troop and their moms, to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes for Christmas. Upon arrival, she and her daughter were forcefully removed from the venue. Why? How? Kelly Conlon worked for a law firm that was involved in a personal injury case against a restaurant owned by Dolan’s MSG empire. She wasn’t part of the case, but Dolan had put all the employees into a facial recognition technology database and used it to identify her and remove her from one of his venues.
This type of behavior has happened so much that the NY state department in charge of liquor and alcohol licensure threatened to suspend the sale of alcohol in Madison Square Garden unless Dolan changed his behavior. Dolan responded by putting up a picture of the head of that department, as well as his personal phone number, and saying something along the lines of “This man wants to take away your alcohol, if you have a problem with that, call his personal phone number seen here.”
There have been investigations into the misuse of technology. The findings show there is a 6 tier rating system for facial recognition. It goes as follows: Code 0 – Do not let into the building / Code 1 – V.I.P / Code 2 – We know you’re in the building and are tracking you at all times / Code 3 – Conversation with the person and letting them know we know you’re in the building and you will be tracked at all times. / Code 4: Conversation letting the person know they are unacceptable and on the last straw / Code 5: Letting someone in the building only to throw them out later so they get embarrassed.
Spike Lee is on this list for some reason. He is a code 2. Patrick Ewing is somehow on this list. I’m kinda hoping I’m on the list after writing this.
Jim Dolan was given a playground and believes it’s a world. He gets to buy his way to moderate musical success as he continues to play pretend. He was given one of the most historic legendary sports teams and run it into the ground. I asked at the beginning of this, “Who is the most important person in a sports franchise?” We discussed the fall of the Knicks from dominant to the worst team in the NBA and almost none of it was because of the actual players, but rather how poorly mismanaged everything has been from the top down.
Jim Dolan, please sell the Knicks. I want my brother to be happy.
