James Dolan, who recently banned a fan for life from Madison Square Garden for imploring him to sell the Knicks, a notion virtually the entire basketball world agrees with, went on The Michael Kay Show yesterday, and it went, of course, horribly.
He doubled down on his decision, saying he felt “ambushed" by the fan.
He danced on the New York Daily News’ grave, for having the gravitas to criticize the worst NBA team of the last 20 years, whose last title came 46 years ago.
And he claimed Bill Simmons’ report that Dolan was trying to sell the team was false, floating the idea that Danny Ainge leaked that false info in order to scare away free agents this offseason, as if Dolan not owning the Knicks would be a deterrent for NBA players.
The rebuttals from those he insulted were swift and enjoyable.
“MSG’s grudge against the Daily News predates the journalists writing about the Knicks in our pages today. If the tone of coverage tends to be negative, it’s because the team is 41 games under .500 and has the worst winning percentage in the NBA over the last 20 seasons.”
“Clearly — the biggest lure for future free agents is the perennially stable Knicks franchise, all those playoff wins and the leadership of owner James Dolan. A new owner might scare them off.” …
“Tell me which GM wouldn’t want a rival superstar to leave a contender for the dumbass Knicks? Also, can you destabilize a franchise that’s already been badly destabilized? I stand by what I said about JD courting offers obviously. It was 100% true.”
From Charles Oakley, who Dolan banned after an ugly incident in 2017:
"The commissioner needs to step in and do something, suspend [Dolan], something. He can't keep getting away with it. This man told the security guards to throw me out for no reason. I was banned twice in eight months."
If everyone had such overwhelmingly negative feelings about you, wouldn’t you want to cut your losses and get out of the business?
[READ: James Dolan says he isn't to blame for his poor PR, the New York Daily News is]
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