America might have largely voted in opposition to authoritarianism final week, however the New York Knicks proceed to lean into it.
In James Dolan’s newest try and vanquish any opposition to the Knicks, aside from those the staff is scheduled to play in opposition to, he’s making an attempt to ban a legislation agency from each single property owned by Madison Square Garden.
Larry Hutcher, and all different attorneys with the agency Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP are representing a gaggle of ticket resellers which might be at present banned from Madison Square Garden’s properties. The resellers are suing on the premise of New York’s Arts and Cultural Affairs legislation. Hutcher has been a season-ticket holder for the Knicks and New York Rangers for many years, however was knowledgeable earlier this 12 months that they’d not be renewed. MSG has a coverage that bars attorneys from its properties in the event that they’re concerned in a case in opposition to the corporate.
This resulted in a second swimsuit filed by Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, and so they obtained a partial victory on Monday. A decide dominated that attorneys from the agency should be permitted entry for music and theater exhibits on the Garden, Radio City Music Hall, and Beacon Theater in the event that they current a legitimate ticket. There has been no ruling but on Knicks and Rangers video games.
Typical conduct from Dolan and his firm. This is similar one who fired Marv Albert from MSG Network in 2004 for criticizing the Knicks, known as former twenty first Century Fox Executive Rupert Murdoch and bought the corporate to take away adverts from subway automobiles that made enjoyable of the staff, and has tried with each fiber of his being to maintain the media away.
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When the Knicks traded for Jalen Brunson and signed R.J. Barrett to a contract extension, they didn’t maintain press conferences for both occasion. The Bruson one is particularly fishy, as a result of Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau employed his father, Rick, to be an assistant coach after he resigned from Thibodeau’s Minnesota Timberwolves employees following allegations of sexual misconduct that he has denied. The Knicks 2022 Media Day was titled “Content Day.”
Since 2001, the Knicks have required staff personnel to be current when gamers are interviewed by the press. In a 2007 Sports Illustrated story, S.L. Price wrote that the Knicks have a “Big Brother reputation unsurpassed by any team in sports.” Also included within the piece is an anecdote about Bill Parcells calling a former Knicks coach and asking in a laughing however severe approach, “Is this a clean line?”
Turning the Knicks right into a silo is all that Dolan has been capable of accomplish since he grew to become Chairman of Madison Square Garden. The metropolis’s most beloved staff has changed into the joke that the Los Angeles Clippers have been for many of their existence. The franchise of Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Bernard King, and Patrick Ewing has gained 4 playoff rounds for the reason that flip of the millennium, two of these in 2000.
Dolan has thrown cash at Eddy Curry, Stephon Marbury, and a damaged Amare Stoudemire, and none of it has helped. The Knicks haven’t regarded like a championship contender since Jeff Van Gundy was yelling at officers as their head coach, as a substitute of at NBA followers the world over when he feels {that a} dangerous name was made.
Instead of creating higher basketball selections, Dolan has taken the method of declaring anybody who criticizes, or apparently professionals who characterize somebody with a reliable declare in opposition to his firm, as a mortal enemy.
I suppose scripting this column now places me on that checklist as effectively. Hey, if being the world’s most unsuccessful dictator makes him really feel higher about him cratering the popularity of a as soon as proud franchise, so be it.