Posts tagged JamesDolan at FanHouse

Some recent chatter about Cablevision breaking off a few of its properties -- Madison Square Garden, for one -- has led some to the conclusion James Dolan will be losing control of the Knickerbockers. Newsday's Ken Berger intimates Knicks fans will have no such luck.

"I would say the most likely buyer is probably some group headed by Jim Dolan, personally, because Jim seems to get a lot of pleasure out of those particular assets," an expert in the field of sports and media transactions told Newsday.

"Those assets are unique, and if you enjoy owning and running them, you're not going to get another shot at it. So I'm not sure why you would sell."

If anything, Dolan will have more control over the Knicks, as he currently (in theory) answers to the Cablevision board. Of course, Dolan's chief problem -- one Isiah Lord Thomas -- has been exiled to parts unknown. There probably isn't terrible much damage Dolan can do with Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni playing interference these days.

Can you imagine if the Knicks did hit the open market, though? Back in 2002, the Celtics sold for $360 million. I imagine the Knicks, with the market power of New York, a world-famous gym, and the extraordinary services of Wilson Chandler, would break $600 million ... which, coincidentally, is the Knicks' payroll after luxury tax this season.

By theory, the NBA Draft Lottery (tonight at 7:30 p.m. Eastern) is left to randomness. But what if basketball karma dictated the results? Close your eyes and imagine such a world ...

#1 Pick: New York Knicks. James Dolan has done everything (other than self-flagellation) required by the karmic standard to rectify the painful past for his franchise: he kicked Isiah Thomas downstairs and out of sight, he gave a new face complete control of the operation, and he paid a ton of cash to the most exciting coach in the sport, a creative fellow who could make watching even Eddy Curry enjoyable. Of course, Dolan exists as a crime against basketball ... so consider this a karmic thank-you to Dolan for keeping his head out of his ass for a single month (hard work, surely), as well as a heavenly blessing to all those beat-up Knicks fans out there.

#2 Pick: Los Angeles Clippers. Again, the owner of the franchise deserves few plaudits. By several accounts, Donald Sterling is a bit of a scumbag. But these poor Clippers fans! The 2006 postseason was not salvation -- it was a taste of the high life offered solely to make the Evil Empire's return to the top even more painful to watch. Injuries galore, decades of misery ... the Clippers deserve a break.

#3 Pick: Sacramento Kings. Faced with the sincere opportunity to tank two years in a row, the Kings have instead played spoiler and asserted their role in playoff seeding. Also, unlike Clay Bennett, the Maloofs have (shock!) worked with the locals to (awe!) cooperate in building a privately-financed arena. Though the league has taken the lead, the Maloofs might be writing the playbook on how the NBA can survive in a small market without being as good as the Spurs.

Honorable mentions: Minnesota (for refusing to tank and rebuilding the right way), Portland (the feel-good team of the decade ... though one might think their positive mojo has been used up).

Join NBA FanHouse at 7 p.m. Eastern for a live blog of the lottery, hosted by Brett Edwards.

James Dolan spent something like $180 million on the Isiah Thomas abomination. The Knicks spent more money on payroll this season than any other team ... and still ended up among the six worst squads in the league. So it's good to see some of Dolan's hard-earned dollars going to a worthy cause. From the New York Post, via SbB.

Anucha Browne Sanders isn't letting the $11 million she won in her sexual harassment case against Isiah Thomas burn a hole in her pocket. At last week's Arthur Ashe SportsBall, a fund-raiser for urban youth programs, Sanders "was bidding on everything in the silent auction," according to a witness. "She had her name down under every item," said the onlooker, including "an Oprah Winfrey experience, a Roger Federer tennis racket and a Barack Obama basketball.

Oprah experience, or Jerome James? Federer memorabilia, or Jared Jeffries? Tough call. Hell, Anucha could buy $500,000 of Hot Pockets and still spend more wisely than Isiah did. And we're talking Hot Pockets.

The Isiah Thomas era came to an end last week, but as you may recall, it wasn't because he was fired. Nope, apparently Isiah has some pretty strong dirt on team chairman James Dolan, as he somehow was allowed to stay with the team (in some capacity that we are uncertain of) under terms of his "reassignment."

One thing we are certain about concerning Isiah's new role is that it won't involve talking to members of the team he used to coach ... at all. Thomas has officially been barred by the organization from having any contact with what used to be his players. The reasons for this are obvious: if Thomas kept in touch with the Knicks players -- every last one of whom he was responsible for acquiring -- he may, intentionally or not, undermine what the new head coach is trying to do in terms of turning things around.

Now, while Donnie Walsh may be technically doing the right thing by trying to put a ban like this in place, the reality is, with Thomas still lurking behind the scenes, no one can be certain that he isn't speaking with any of his former players. The only way to completely revamp the Knicks and distance the team from the Isiah era is to remove him from having anything to do with the team in any capacity whatsoever. Which is something that at this point, it appears that Dolan is simply unwilling to do.

(Here's one blogger's attempt on boiling down the Jeff Van Gundy situation for you.) Yesterday during ABC's epic Suns-Spurs battle, the Knicks' coaching vacancy -- for which color analyst #1 Mark Jackson is a top candidate -- came up on the air. JVG (color analyst #2) was asked about his interest by play-by-play man (and Knicks broadcaster) Mike Breen. JVG called himself a "superdelegate" and insisted Jackson, his partner who was sitting less than five feet away at the time, was the right candidate for the job and should be hired.

So is JVG interested or not? During Friday's press call on Isiah Thomas's reassignment, new boss Donnie Walsh mentioned he'd be interested in finding out JVG's interest level in returning to Madison Square Garden. JVG's weekend interview with the New York Post's Marc Berman provides a hint of an answer in discussing unresolved tension between himself and Knicks owner James Dolan over JVG's previous hasty exit.

"I made a decision that was right for me and what I thought was right for the Knicks at the time. If that overshadows my service to the Knicks in his mind, I'd be disappointed."

I'm not clear as to why Van Gundy would be concerned with Dolan's feelings on the subject were Van Gundy not interested in spending that earned "service to the Knicks" in order to get back into the franchise. JVG doesn't strike me as someone who needs to feel loved by everyone he's crossed paths with.

Jackson remains a prohibitive favorite -- Phil Jackson would have to abandon the Lakers or M. Jackson would have to seriously blow his meetings with Walsh, I think, to derail Mark's path to the bench. That's not going to happen, so the rest of this might as well be idle chatter. But it bears remembering that JVG holds a bit of interest in this job, and possibly others.

I stumbled across this BetUS "Prop Talk" column (no need for you to inquire how I do my stumbling, thank you) a few days ago, and obviously it's not fresh or anything, but it seems pretty appropriate at this stage in Isiah Thomas' career. See, Zeke was a -2000 favorite to be the first coach fired this season.

Donnie Walsh has been hired to replace Isiah Thomas as the Knicks president of basketball operations. It is widely assumed that Walsh will also relieve Thomas of his coaching duties after the regular season ends on Apr. 16.

Wanna bet? Thomas is a –2000 sports betting favorite to be the next NBA coach who either gets fired or resigns. The field is priced at +800. However likely it may be that Thomas' four years and change in the Big Apple are about to end on a sour note, he's not the only one with his head on the block.

I actually tried to find the odds themselves, and was unable to for whatever reason. I wish I had, because had I bet on anything, it would have been "field". There were plenty of people -- Jim Boylan and Larry Krystkowiak come to mind -- that were eligible to be canned before Zeke, especially considering that Donnie Walsh probably wasn't interested in finding an interim coach to manage the circus for just a few games.

But more than anything, I think what's funny about this particular gambling line is that it is pretty metaphorical for Isiah's entire tenure in New York. -2000 is one of the highest money lines I've ever seen. Think about it. 1:20 odds is beyond anything Tiger Woods or the 2008 Patriots ever sniffed. Yet ... he still beat them!

And that's what Isiah has been doing in New York for years. Sexual harassment lawsuits, horrible free agent signings, 30% winning percentages, embarrassing trades -- none of them could get Isiah booted immediately. Finally, James Dolan caved and brought in Donnie Walsh, who canned Thomas, but when we all think back on Zeke's career in New York, yes, we'll be amazed at how awful a job he did. But I think in the end, we'll be more amazed at how long he actually kept the job.

Via With Leather, the New York Post reports Knicks owner James Dolan will open up his wallet to thank his poor, abused fans by making all food and drink at Madison Square Garden free during the team's home finale. Good idea, and hey! the game's already a sell-out ...

... against the Boston Celtics. Which means the stands will filled with Boston Celtics fans. Boston leads the league in road attendance this season, with 98.5% capacity in visiting arenas when Kevin Garnett brings his boys. Just an example: Sacramento will sell out three games this season: Two (including tonight's match) against the Lakers and the December 26 game against Boston. Boston sold out freaking Sacramento before the season started (I couldn't get box-office tix in October); I think they may have purchased some tickets in NYC.

I don't mean to crap on an otherwise nice gesture, but ... this stuff isn't difficult to figure out. If you want to thank Knicks fans, you should make sure they are in the arena when you open up the nacho bar.

Via Deadspin, Portfolio magazine tallied up some estimates of just how much cash Isiah Thomas has lit on fire during his 4-year tenure in New York City. The total is staggering: $187 million, which includes a whopping $137 million in luxury taxes.

As noted in the comments to the Portfolio item, this might be a conservative estimate. The Knicks aren't getting under the tax next season, so there's at least one more season of paying double for Jerome James and Jared Jeffries. And a jury of his peers pinned the blame for the hostile workplace Madison Square Garden had become on Zeke -- and that blame came along with a $12 million bill for James Dolan.

You'd have to go back to Ted Stepien in Cleveland to find a franchise so destroyed by one man (and Stepien might not even beat Thomas).
Sorry, No Photos

The Knicks aren't just a bad team, they're a paranoid team. Players aren't allowed to talk to reporters without a media relations flak around to monitor the conversation, and reporters are often tailed by security officials as they go about the arena doing their job. Apparently, though, that's all about to change.

One of Donnie Walsh's stipulations for accepting his new job with the Knicks was having complete control of the media policy, to which Dolan surprisingly agreed. From Frank Isola of the New York Daily News:

"Donnie will have complete control over all basketball operations," said Dolan, who gave Thomas a contract extension in March of 2007. "He will report directly to me. He will have autonomy to decide how best to run this basketball team, and as some of you will be happy to know, he will also have the autonomy to establish the policy related to the media."

When a member of the media responded with a mock cheer, Dolan shot back, "Be careful of what you ask for."

Don't expect the culture to change overnight -- beat reporters covering the team have been jaded for far too long to suddenly arrive at the Garden bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and excited to do their job. Plus, players will probably be nervous to speak freely after being muzzled for the past several seasons. But still, it's a huge step in the right direction, even if it means the Knicks are merely falling into step with the rest of the league.

If we don't care about the scourge of the NBA, who will? The Bleaker Rankings will assess the grotesque each Tuesday.

1. The Bucks. Is it still considered tanking if you play all your best players (40+ minutes for Michael Redd, Mo Williams, and Andrew Bogut) and still manage to lose to the Heat, who played only three guys who haven't played in the D-League this year? I think so.

2. The Jim Boylan regime. Boylan could very well get jumped in the middle of a game by half his team, and I wouldn't be surprised. What could possibly be so revolting about his style to illicit such anger from his charges?

3. The Knicks. Signs of life in James Dolan's skull!

4. The Bobcats. March has been loads better than the season-killing 1-11 Ferbuary Charlotte had. But the franchise-high 5-game win streak led to another 5-game losing streak. Charlotte will probably not clear the 30-win mark, after a promising run last year (33 wins). Sam Vincent might be the first rookie coach firing this summer.

5. The Mavericks. Dallas, of course, could still very well win a title this summer. But watching Dirk Nowitzki go down and watching Jason Kidd be so ineffective in late-game situations ... it's got to be a nervous in Big D. And don't forget how old this team is -- they were the 5th oldest before trading 26-year-old Devin Harris for 35-year-old Kidd.)

Others receiving votes: The Kings; The Clippers; The Nets, who should in these playoffs with that much talent.