At the time of writing, The New York Knicks are currently languishing in 13th place in the Eastern conference with a record of 19-44. The Knicks have not made the playoffs since 2013 and this year will be another season that the fans at Madison Square Garden will prefer to forget.
Likely the most bitter aspect with this season’s results will be the overwhelming level of promise that was felt going into free agency and last year’s NBA draft. The New York Knicks held two potential max contracts that could have been spent on franchise stars and a draft pick that had the joint-highest odds of gifting the Knicks the number one overall pick and the chance of drafting Zion Williamson, who already looks to be a generational talent. The best-case scenario of the Knicks signing both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant and adding Williamson through the draft left New Yorkers salivating, instead the Knicks draft pick dropped to number three, with New Orleans snapping up Williamson with the number one pick and both Irving and Durant signed with the Knicks’ cross-city rivals, the Brooklyn Nets.
To many Knicks fans, the simple question is why? Why wouldn’t two of the NBA’s biggest stars want to suit up for arguably the league’s biggest market, aside from perhaps the Los Angeles Lakers? To many, the answer lies solely with one man, Knicks owner James Dolan. The season before James Dolan took full ownership from his father Charles, the Knicks made the Eastern Conference finals. That was in 2000. 20 years later and the Knicks have only made the playoffs five times under Dolan and won only one playoff series altogether. For a market like New York and a franchise with the history of the Knicks, that is simply unacceptable.
When sports fans picture bad owners, they think of owners that are frugal to a fault, owners that are unwilling to spend to win. Dolan is undoubtedly the opposite, financial mismanagement has plagued the Knicks throughout Dolan’s regime, the most egregious case to Knicks fans likely being the ridiculous contract extension offered to Allan Houston in 2001. There’s no argument that Houston was one of the Knicks’ best players at the time and was worthy of an extension, there was interest from other teams in the region of around a $75 million contract, the Knicks then chose to sign Houston on a six year contract for $100 million. Immediately, alarm bells were ringing, Houston was already 30 years old when he signed his extension, an age where most NBA stars reach the end of their prime and an unnecessarily lucrative contract for an aging star prohibited the Knicks from surrounding Houston with other stars under the league’s salary cap restrictions. By protecting the only star they had, Dolan ensured that Houston would stay the Knicks’ only star, for better or worse.
For the first two seasons, Houston rose to the occasion, averaging his career high in points-per-game in the 2002-03 season with an average of 22.5. After that point, chronic knee pain ruined the latter part of his career, four years after penning his six-year extension, Allan Houston retired due to his injuries, leaving the New York Knicks paying the remaining $40 million to a player that was no longer even on their roster and that money sat on their books, unable to be spent on another player to replace him.
The situation was so bad that the NBA introduced a new ruling, later named after Houston himself that allowed a team to release one player without the rest of their contract counting towards the salary tax, allowing any bad contracts to at least be reinvested into the team. In a move that almost sums up the ineptitude and pettiness that we would later come to associate with Dolan, the Knicks did indeed choose to release a player under the Allan Houston rule, but did not release Allan Houston, instead releasing forward Jerome Williams.
It’s not just the decisions that affect the on-court action that have alienated Dolan from the Knicks faithful and potentially deterred high-profile free agents from choosing to play in New York, an off-court incident on February 9th 2017 drew ire and courted controversy across the league. Charles Oakley, who played for the Knicks for a decade and was a fan favourite due to his aggressive play, was ejected from Madison Square Garden and arrested after an altercation with security at the stadium. It was no secret that Oakley had been critical of Dolan’s ownership and his decision-making and the Knicks were quick to release a statement saying that Oakley “behaved in a highly inappropriate and completely abusive manner” and that they “hope he gets help soon” claiming that Oakley had directed insults towards Dolan. However, many reports from spectators at the game directly contrast with the Knicks’ account of events. Oakley maintains that security demanded he leave the building when they questioned why he was sat close to where Dolan was seated and when he refused, security physically intervened and Oakley was arrested for shoving a member of security in return.
The latest incident surrounding Dolan occurred on March 3rd, 2020. Director Spike Lee is widely regarded as the most famous New York Knicks fan, being a constant at courtside for over two decades. On the 3rd, Lee was initially denied entry to Madison Square Garden and told that he was using the wrong entrance, Lee claims that it was the same entrance that he has always used and that they were trying to get him to leave and therefore, not be able to get back in as his ticket had already been scanned. The Knicks responded stating that the idea that Spike Lee is a victim is “laughable”. It is clear through both statements issued regarding Charles Oakley and Spike Lee that the Knicks are a franchise that are out of touch with their fanbase through their thinly-veiled jabs at both men and James Dolan is likely at the forefront of this as he has consistently had problems with Oakley and Lee famously defended Oakley during the fallout of his incident in 2017.
The BlackKkKlansman director has vowed to boycott the Knicks for the rest of the season and it seems that many fans might be following suit as the Knicks’ home game the day after against the Utah Jazz yielded the lowest attendance for almost 15 years, with many chants of “sell the team” ringing out through what was once known as the mecca of basketball.
The unfortunate news for many Knicks fans is there isn’t much that can be done to force Dolan out of power, the low attendance will likely not last long enough or be significant enough to make an impact and the league itself has no grounds to legally oust James Dolan from ownership, the NBA was notably able to force former LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling to sell the team after audio tapes surfaced of Sterling making racist remarks. Sterling was later banned from the league for life. It is unlikely that Dolan’s indiscretions will be met with the same level of severity.
New Yorkers will likely have to hope that Dolan eventually gets tired of the pressure as despite not being able to win a championship in 44 years, the Knicks are still the most valuable NBA franchise according to Forbes, at a value of around $4 billion, holding the top spot for four consecutive years.
While Dolan may not have any plans to yield to the outraged Knicks fanbase, the lack of success for almost half a century and a consistent lack of unity between the fans and management will only serve to drive an even larger wedge between the two parties. My advice to outraged New Yorkers? You have an up-and-coming team with two franchise stars ready to announce themselves to the world next season only 5 miles away, don’t settle for another mediocre 20 years, especially for a franchise that clearly doesn’t deserve your patience.
The solution to the James Dolan problem is the Brooklyn Nets.
The Inbound Observer 