James Dolan’s latest confrontation at MSG implies that the owner is personally trying to alienate fans and scare off KD and Kyrie.
Knicks owner James Dolan made a surprise appearance on “The Michael Kay Show” on 1050 ESPN New York on Tuesday, to speak about the state of the Knicks and why Dolan banned a fan for life after the game on Saturday night for yelling, “Sell the team.”
The old expression, “The truth hurts” really applied in this instance, as the fan must have struck a major nerve. Dolan could have easily kept walking and exited the building, with no time to stop for a loud-mouthed fan who probably won’t make in two lifetimes what Dolan hauled in that night alone at MSG.
If you were expecting a remorseful Dolan, then the joke’s on you. During the interview, the Knicks owner was egotistical, unremorseful and even tried to play the victim by claiming that the confrontation was an “ambush” by fans who sold the video to TMZ.
“The ban is only coming from the fact that we now have learned that he planned it,” Dolan said. “They were stalking me. You can’t do that in Madison Square Garden. You are not allowed to stalk the owner and then confront him like that.
“Those particular guys had planned on making that video and selling it on TMZ.”
Poor baby.
After being ripped by media and fans who feel that he made a mountain out of a molehill and could have just walked on by instead of stopping to confront the fan and calling security, Dolan stands by his decision to ban the fan for life from Madison Square Garden.
Knicks & Rangers owner James Dolan explains why he banned a fan for life from Madison Square Garden. pic.twitter.com/RmSE0TnO9k
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) March 12, 2019
The Knicks saga under Dolan gets worse and worse. The controversial owner still doesn’t get it, even after years of negative press culminating with the Charles Oakley incident, where the Knicks legend was embarrassingly dragged out of the stadium for sitting near Dolan.
Dolan didn’t let it end there. He also banned Oakley and had the Knicks star going back and forth to court. Dolan displayed the same egotistical and insecure overkill in this recent situation.
Rather than make peace with the people who pay his Bugatti and private jet bills, Dolan concocted some lie about how the fan yelling at him was part of a premeditated scheme. He seems incapable of being the type of owner that the people of the city of New York can respect beyond his bottomless money pit.
The Knicks have a new front office, coach and a plan to attract two mega free agents this summer and with a potential No. 1 pick are on the cusp of starting a new winning era. Unfortunately, as long as Dolan is around, the stench coming from MSG — the equivalent of a dog pooping on 100 Manhattan blocks — will probably scare a Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving away.
What free agent wants to come to a team where the owner is the epitome of white privilege, doesn’t respect his fans and won’t hesitate to publicly humiliate one of the most beloved players in team history?
This isn’t Dolan’s first confrontation with a heckling fan. He had a verbal spat with a fan outside of the Garden a few years back and called the fan an “A-hole” drunk and threatened to ban him as well.
Dolan has proved to be big, billionaire baby and the entire Knicks franchise, plus MSG is just one of his toys. We can only pray that one day — and one day soon, he takes that fan’s sage advice, finally puts down the toy that he’s terribly mistreated and sells the team.
