James Dolan wants you to know the persisting crappy state of the New York Knicks is not his fault, because he’s not getting involved in matters of basketball.
Here’s the lowdown of his new favorite defense, per ESPN.com’s Ian Begley:
Knicks owner James Dolan maintains that he’s not involved in basketball decisions. “No, no,” Dolan said when asked during an appearance on Fox 5 if he’s engaged in basketball decisions surrounding the Knicks. “It’s all Phil (Jackson, Knicks team president). It’s all Steve (Mills, Knicks general manager)…. I’m working on my music, they’re working on the basketball team,” Dolan, who in the past has been hands-on in Knicks basketball decisions, said on Fox 5 that people ask him all the time about the Knicks. His response? “Ask Phil.” The Knicks have missed the playoffs in each of Jackson’s three full seasons as team president and have made the playoffs just four times in the last 16 years under Dolan.
“Ask Phil.”
Nice job, James.
Dolan doesn’t deserve a meddle for staying out of basketball decisions. In fact, he should be chastised for trying to distance himself from the situation. Part of being a good owner entails stepping in when the person you hired to run your team isn’t doing a competent job. And Phil Jackson has done a shitty job of guiding the Knicks out of their era of futility—unless, of course, his goal was to steer them deeper into their decades-long malaise, in which case his tenure at the helm has been an unqualified success.
Owners should stay out of the situation if said situation is good. You know, like in 2013, when the Knicks were coming off a spectacular regular season and Dolan decided it was a good time to fire president and general manager Glen Grunwald. Or when Dolan decided forking over queen and country for Carmelo Anthony in 2011 was worth the Knicks’ shot at trading for Chris Paul.
Right now, Dolan is failing the Knicks. He’s always failing the Knicks. Either he’s doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, or he’s doing nothing at all, once again at the wrong time. So even though there’s a light at the end of tunnel on Jackson’s contract (two years), nothing about Dolan’s past actions suggest he’ll know what to do next.
