If the rumors that Kevin Durant plans to leave the Golden State Warriors for the New York Knicks in free agency turn out to be true, the NBA champion forward would do well to rethink his destination.
Currently, the rumor mill is churning out pulp stating Durant is New York-bound, with hopes of playing for the Knicks with his good pal Kyrie Irving. But Durant (and Irving) would be well-served to proceed with caution on any plans involving New York, for one big reason: James Dolan.
As controlling owner of Madison Square Garden Company, which owns the Knicks, the NHL Rangers and, until a few months ago, the WNBA Liberty, Dolan’s track record has been marred by head-scratching, bad decisions and volatile interactions with others.
Here are the red flags any NBA player should ponder before signing with the New York Knicks:
Dolan is prone to vindictive, maniacal power plays.
Just ask the fans who have been banned from Madison Square Garden for uttering three words: Sell the team. The fans did not spew expletives or resort to name-calling. But those three words alone inspired Dolan to tell one fan to enjoy watching the games on TV and called over his security guards to whisk the fan away and inform him that he was being banned for life.
Although it was a wrong-headed move, and bad for fan and media relations, Dolan could have overcome this had it been an isolated incident. But it was not. Another fan reported experiencing the same thing in 2018 after shouting at Dolan to sell the team.
Players repeatedly are held to stricter standards when it comes to fan engagement. Had a player made a threat or carried out a vindictive action against a fan, he would be fined and/or suspended.
Dolan is a public figure, just like the players and coaches. Jeers from fans come with the territory, while players, most of all, have to deal with a lot worse. (Just ask Russell Westbrook.) That Dolan cannot accept the mildest of criticisms and exacts retribution to something as innocuous as a fan telling him to sell the team shows a man with paper-thin skin and a too-heavy hand — an unsavory combination of character traits.
Dolan has an elastic relationship with the truth.
Once Dolan’s most recent ban of a fan from the Garden hit the news, he defended his actions by claiming the fan staged the confrontation and “ambushed” him. Video of the incident shows the fan yelling from the stands while Dolan walked by, which the owner easily could have ignored. Instead, Dolan turned back to confront the fan and later defended his actions with a lie. Now, many view the advice of the fan — that Dolan sell the team — to be right on point.
How many fans have to banned for exercising their First Amendment rights before Dolan is forced by the NBA to do just that?
The Charles Oakley situation was a shameful display.
One person intimately familiar with Dolan’s reign of terror on the New York organization is former Knicks player Charles Oakley, who Dolan had forcefully removed from the Garden in 2017 — and arrested by the New York City Police Department — following what is presumed to have been a verbal encounter between the two.
As he did with the fan situation over the last week — claiming he had been ambushed — Dolan blamed Oakley for what transpired, going as far as to malign him in the media with assertions that Oakley is an alcoholic.
“This man told the security guards to throw me out for no reason,” Oakley said. “I was banned twice in eight months.”
Now, Oakley is one of the loudest voices calling for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to intervene. In a statement provided to The Athletic, Oakley said:
The commissioner needs to step in and do something, suspend him, something. He can’t keep getting away with it.
Dolan’s go-to insult seems to be to accuse people of being alcoholic, brag about his own sobriety and tell others they, too, should try sobriety.
We can see why absolutely no one would seek sobriety after his example.
All of Dolan’s front office, coaching and player personnel decisions have ended in failure
Just see:
Phil Jackson — The multi-time champion as a player and coach couldn’t turn things around during his three-year tenure as Knicks president. After ongoing discord with the front office, Phil Jackson departed in 2017 with an 80-166 record.
Steve Kerr — After his stint in the Phoenix Suns front office, Steve Kerr was ready to test his skills as a head coach. In 2015, he was offered a position with the New York Knicks, which he wisely declined in favor of a head coaching job with the Golden State Warriors. “It just felt like the right move on many levels,” Kerr said at the time.
Derek Fisher — Steve Kerr is who the Knicks wanted but Derek Fisher is who the Knicks got. In his two years with the franchise, from 2014 until just over halfway through the 2016 season, Fisher tallied a dismal 40-96 record.
Carmelo Anthony — No matter how much juice Carmelo Anthony had left in the tank, the Knicks re-signed him to a five-year contract totaling $124 million, which limited the franchise’s ability to sign other All-Star-caliber players (because their money was tied up in Anthony) and prevented Anthony from being traded due to its no-trade clause. This is called a fail-fail situation.
Although the signing of Kristaps Porzingis gave the Knicks hope for better days, the player was quickly let go amid rumors that Dolan wanted to off-load talent to make way for Durant. Porzingis reportedly did not want to play second fiddle to Durant, or any superstar, so he was traded.
Other failed player signings include Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose.
At the end of the day …
If Durant wants to leave whatever he finds ill-fitting in the Warriors’ culture or with his on-court role, it is hard to imagine he’d find anything close to better in New York, so long as James Dolan is the owner.
In fact, a move to the Knicks would put him in the most toxic franchise environment since the Donald Sterling-era Clippers. If Durant is hoping to hide from a frenzied media environment, too, New York would be the exact wrong city. Thanks to a losing record year-over-year and Dolan’s ongoing bad acts, New York is littered with rotten meat on which the media will continue to feed.
Chris Broussard of Fox Sports reported that Durant (and Irving) “have some apprehensions” about the Knicks “because of the media.”
That is, because of the media reports about Knicks owner James Dolan, which should give any sane, peace-loving person pause.
