Just a few days ago, news broke about New York Knicks owner James Dolan getting into a confrontation with a fan and using obscene language towards him. That confrontation shows yet again how Dolan cannot say or do anything right.
Within the last few days, news has arisen about New York Knicks owner James Dolan getting into a confrontation with a self-proclaimed Knicks “superfan.” This confrontation featured Dolan cursing out the fan, better known as Mike Hamersky via Deadspin.Hamersky engaged the dialogue by yelling: “Sell the team Jim!”
Dolan then responded, and confirmed the fact that he did so.
“Hell, yeah, I did!”
“I did call him an a******,” Dolan tells me, “because he is an a*******.”
Dolan, the owner of both the Knicks and the New York Rangers, claimed that he wouldn’t let Hamersky in the Garden as well, due to the presence of alcohol as well as his actions.
“He had an open bottle of beer and smelled of alcohol, and I told him he wasn’t going in”
While someone criticizing the way you work is immature and uncalled for, Dolan has no reason to go back at a fan in public.
The fan yelling at him is a sad cry for change, but Dolan looks just as bad for responding to him, as the fan does for igniting the heated exchange.
Throughout his time as owner of the team, Dolan has been criticized excessively for the team’s failures. That’s due to a number of factors, including key decisions personal wise. Whether it’s overriding Donnie Walsh’s power as president, giving Phil Jackson too much power as president or even handling relationships with ex-players unprofessionally, Dolan has been the center of criticism in the big apple. This altercation only adds to the notion that Dolan can’t say anything right.
By saying what he said, Dolan’s showing a lack of maturity. Why does one random fan have to trigger Dolan to respond the way he did? In fact, what Hamersky cried wasn’t even that bad. There was no swearing, and it’s also definitely not the first time Dolan has heard such chants.
Throughout his time as owner, this year in particular, Dolan has relentlessly heard chants in favor of his departure during Knicks games. It’s reached the point where him not hearing such chants means that something off. This year’s chants though have been highly motivated by his handling of the Charles Oakley situation – one which was handed poorly.
Back in mid-February, the Knicks downward spiral of a season took yet another turn. In the first quarter of a matchup versus the Los Angeles Clippers, former Knicks forward Charles Oakley got into a physical altercation with Madison Square Garden security, in which he shoved members of the staff. Oakley’s actions that night made the Knicks, but more specifically Dolan look really bad.
In year’s past, Dolan and Oakley have been on bad terms to the point where Oakley, unlike other members of his 90’s Knicks teams, had to pay for his own seat, as opposed to receiving free admission. As a result of his actions that night, the Knicks permanently banned Oakley from the garden, but only to meet with commissioner Adam Silver and Michael Jordan via phonetical to reverse the ban. The biggest issue in this chaotic occurrence though is what Dolan said in an interview on the Michael Kay Show.
In his lengthy interview on the Michael Kay Show, Dolan said that Oakley could possibly be an alcoholic. He made that statement without any proof to back it up. Even if proven true though, for Dolan to say something to that magnitude is foolish, given the backlash that could potentially come with it.
If you’re going to say that someone’s an alcoholic or has something negative attached to them, you need to be able to back that ip with proof and legit facts. Dolan didn’t do that.
At the end of day, are Dolan’s comments towards the Knick superfan going to affect the Knicks on-court production? Of course not, but those remarks show how Dolan can’t ever say the right thing in public, whether he believes it to be true or not. What the fan said to Dolan was obscene, but it’s not like Dolan hasn’t heard that cry before. To respond to a fan the way Dolan did just adds to the notion that he can’t say or do anything right as landlord of the Garden.
