New York Knicks owner James Dolan is not untouchable, just super stupid and lucky.
And yes, in this case, untouchable.
Dolan will not be punished for his cruel email to a decades-long Knicks fan, according to the New York Post‘s Tim Bontemmps.
For those who haven’t heard, the short version goes like this: Fan blasts Dolan for running the Knicks aground; Dolan accuses fan of being a miserable, toxic alcoholic who ruins everything and everyone around him, then tells him to root for the Brooklyn Nets. For those interested in the long version, here’s the email that was sent to Dolan, via DeadSpin’s Timothy Burke:
Subject: I have been a Knicks fan since 1952
At one stage I thought that you did a wonderful thing when you acquired EVERYTHING from your dad. However, since then it has been ALL DOWN HILL. Your working with Isaiah Thomas & everything else regarding the Knicks. Bringing on Phil Jackson was a positive beginning, but lowballing Steve Kerr was a DISGRACE to the knicks. The bottom line is that you merely continued to interfere with the franchise.
As a Knicks fan for in excess of 60 years, I am utterly embarrassed by your dealings with the Knicks. Sell them so their fans can at least look forward to growing them in a positive direction Obviously, money IS NOT THE ONLY THING. You have done a lot of utterly STUPID business things with the franchise. Please NO MORE.
Respectfully,
[Aaron Bierman’s dad]
Let’s not pretend that’s an especially kind email; Mr. Bierman is taking shots at Dolan left and right. But nothing—and I mean nothing—about the letter fails to encapsulate the feelings of Knicks fans around New York, the country and the whole gotdamn world.
More importantly, the letter did not warrant the response Dolan gave:
On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 8:15 PM, James Dolan wrote:
Mr Bierman
You are a sad person. Why would anybody write such a hateful letter. I am.just guessing but ill bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess. What have you done that anyone would consider positive or nice. I am betting nothing. In fact ill bet you are negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21 year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it. Maybe it will help you become a person that folks would like to have around. In the mean while start rooting.for the Nets because the Knicks dont want you.
Respectfully
James Dolan
Well, shit.
Most of us know Dolan is a buffoon. The Knicks have floundered under his watch, and controversy abounds. All along, Dolan has pointed to the money he’s sank into this bottomless, crap-laced pit. This, of course, is on the rare occasion he actually speaks. You see, Dolan is above ritualistic media interviews—unless it’s with a seriously vetted outlet and the exchange itself is contrived enough to inoculate Dolan against himself. Point is, Dolan makes himself scarce when he’s not yucking it up courtside, watching the Knicks’ latest slop fest.
This email is just an extension of his ignorance and business stupidity. I don’t want to call him a bad person, because I don’t know him. I’ve heard things. Bad things. Really bad things. But I know not for sure that he’s a malicious scumbag.
All I know for sure is he sucks at running the Knicks, and his relationship with the fans, which has been terribly tenuous at best over the years, is now in the shitter without the slightest hope of recovering. Dolan absolutely should have been punished for this. There shouldn’t even be a question. It has nothing to do with his misplaced views and opinions of himself and the Knicks. Buffoonery isn’t a crime, after all.
But when it becomes this public, when it reflects this poorly on a franchise that is searching for beacons of light, something should have been done. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has elected to do nothing, telling Bontemps “Jim is a consummate New Yorker. Jim got an unkind email and responded with an unkind email.” Yeah, not cool. I’m a New Yorker, and I’ve never been that unkind.
Silver has gotten a lot of things right since taking the reins from his predecessor, David Stern. This is not one of them.
If you cannot punish Dolan for being an unapologetic, shit-talking scoundrel, at least fine him for publicly shaming himself and the Knicks, and tainting the NBA’s usually pristine brand.
