Month: March 2020

This is certainly a bit of a surprise:

Knicks owner James Dolan has the coronavirus, according to the team.

“He has been in self-isolation and is experiencing little to no symptoms,” the team said. “He continues to oversee business operations.”

Dolan is 64 years old.

Dolan owns the Madison Square Garden Company, including several live venues and the Rangers. He lives on Long Island, although it’s unclear where he’s been spending his self-isolation.

As they note, his symptoms are mild, so this probably doesn’t matter one way or the other, but it’s still interesting.

From Marc Berman:

When Dennis Smith Jr. got booed off the court at the Garden in late October, the lone player to go over to him on the bench was Knicks shooting guard Damyean Dotson.

Those are the type of quiet leadership gestures Dotson does that go unnoticed by a Knicks front office now two administrations removed from drafting him. That makes the 25-year-old’s future highly uncertain as he enters free agency.

Dotson did not play in eight of the last nine games, including the double-overtime potential season finale March 11 in Atlanta.

“That seemed the writing on the wall,’’ one NBA scout said of the demotion. “You’d think they’d be still trying to develop him.’’

According to NBA sources, three prominent organizations — the Jazz, Bucks and Warriors — are expected to show some interest in Dotson, who made $1.6 million this season as a “3-and-D’’ prototype.

“He’s got a great work ethic, leadership qualities and toughness,’’ former Knicks coach David Fizdale told The Post this week. “He’s extremely coachable and dedicated teammate. Totally committed to the culture with a consistently good attitude regardless of his minutes.’’

I have no beef with Dotson as a basketball player, but I also don’t think losing him will make that much of an impact. However, if other teams just try to get him for the minimum, the Knicks should probably try to at least beat that.

Also, rather than that Smith Jr. thing being a sign of Dotson being a good leader, isn’t it kind of a bad sign for everyone else on the team? Or is Smith Jr. just a dick and the others all hate him?

It seems like the only real Knicks news is coaches out there saying they don’t want to coach the Knicks.

Stan Van Gundy, who really is a heck of a coach (but a terrible GM), was asked about the Nets and Knicks jobs and replied, “Of the two the Nets are the better job. There’s no question about that right now. The organization has been more stable. They’ve won more games. They have more talent.”

He also noted, “I’m not interested in the New York Knicks. No. First of all, there’s a family history there. If anyone would be interested in that — and I’m not sure he is either — it would be my brother.” Interesting comment about Jeff Van Gundy there.

He ended with more trashing of the Knicks, “And I just – I’ve said this – I’m different than a lot of coaches in looking at jobs. To me, it’s all who you work for and you work with. Everything I’ve seen in the last few years with that organization says that it’s extremely dysfunctional.”

There are many reasons to want the season to return, but partially I’d like to see some stories other than “Coach X would never coach the Knicks.”

New Iona College coach (which is so hilarious), Rick Pitino had a Q&A with the Post and he answered a lot of questions about the Knicks, but the question that has gotten the most attention has been about John Calipari (why Pitino’s insights into John Calpari are newsworthy is a bit beyond me, but hey, we’re all starving for some NBA news, right?):

Q: You don’t think Calipari would be interested in the Knicks job?
A: I really don’t. I think when you coach at Kentucky, you have the premier job in college basketball — in terms of he can recruit any player he wants, he has unbelievable facilities, he’s gonna win his 30 games every year, and he’s got the best job in all of basketball. So I’m not sure why he would ever want to have a job that’s not the best job in all of basketball. He’s smarter than me when it comes to that.

Funny self-own about the time he left Kentucky for the Boston Celtics.

Would anyone here even really want John Calipari? He’s not a bad coach, by any means, but is he really a difference making coach? He hasn’t coached in the NBA for two decades! I don’t see the point.

This has been going around the interwebs, so I figured it could be a fun diversion here.

If you had a chance to play 82 games in the NBA, with a guaranteed 20 minute per game, with the ultimate goal of scoring 20 total points all season, get 5 total rebounds all season and record 10 total assists all season, at which point you would receive a $250 million contract, but if you fail, you’d die (and the players don’t know that you’d die if they didn’t help you, so they won’t help you), would you take the challenge?

I say no way in heck am I gambling my life on that. Scoring a single point in the NBA is ridiculously hard. The other two things could be achieved through luck over the season, but scoring 20 points? That takes some legit skill and I don’t think I’d be able to do it. I certainly wouldn’t be confident enough to bet my life on it. Go to Spring Break during a pandemic? Sure, that’s worth betting my life on it, but not this.

How about you folks?

Kevin Durant was among four members of the Brooklyn Nets who tested positive for the coronavirus, the superstar told The Athletic.

The team announced Tuesday that multiple players were diagnosed with the deadly virus, without disclosing names.

“Of the four, one player is exhibiting symptoms while three are asymptomatic,” the team added in a statement. “All four players are presently isolated and under the care of team physicians.”

Hopefully the player who is showing symptoms is doing okay.

There’s really nothing to be gleamed from this other than the fact is that there are probably a LOT of people out there that have COVID-19 without us knowing about it, which is precisely why the cancellations have been so important.

From Berman:

In a perfect world, the Knicks would have been in sunny Miami on Friday, facing the resurgent Heat while playing out their season’s final 16 games.

Instead, it was Day 1 of Knicks players being advised by the NBA to remain stuck in their New York homes following the league’s suspension of the season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

All teams have been ordered not to practice, according to an industry source.

According to the source, the NBA has recommended “quarantine … only for those individuals who exhibit symptoms of the virus and/or have been in a certain level of close or consistent contact with a person infected with COVID-19.”

The recommendation also included that “teams coordinate with their local or state health departments for such circumstances.”

The NBA has deemed those teams that have played the Jazz in the past 10 days as having such “close or consistent contact.”

Two Jazz players are infected — stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, who played 34 minutes each against the Knicks on March 4 at the Garden.

Hopefully you’re all doing well in your own self-isolation!

Enjoy some Warren Zevon-style isolation…

Big, big game for the draft position.

Let’s go? Knicks!

This sure seems like the type of game where they win and help lock in the sixth worst record instead of the second, right?

Let’s go? Knicks!

From a friend who had this encounter at the Garden the other day. I’ve edited it slightly to protect the names and for formatting purposes.

Looks like I now share something in common with Spike Lee, Charles Oakley & a few other exhausted Knick fans…

So with a little over a minute to go, the Knicks down more than 10 again and the crowd chanting “SELL THE TEAM!” with gusto (the loudest the tourists had been all night). I shout “DOLAN SUCKS!”…once. I’m immediately confronted by an MSG gestapo member who instructs me (and my son) to exit. I reply, “Seriously?” He nods.

My son & I step out. We are now surrounded by 4 members of the MSG security force. I say, “what is this all about?” The MSG rep sternly says “those 2 words”. I said, “Dolan sucks?” He nods. I said, “I didn’t notice ‘no free speech’ on the ticket?” We stand surrounded by 4 MSG guards awaiting — what, I don’t know? I look to a less enthusiastic guard and say “I’m going to take a leak, ok?” He says go ahead. I go in the bathroom & basically wait it out. 10 minutes later…all clear! My son & I duck out down the stairs & out of the building.

So…this is what it’s like when you’re a silver spooned son of a billionaire who inherits a storied franchise with no knowledge or ability in how to run it and your ego is so brittle you need to have goons intimidate the folks that have supported the team before you poisoned the entire building. We can only hope he moves on to another toy his father gifts him. It’s been a long, exhausting and expensive walk in the desert…but Knick fans are always hopeful optimists…and I am one. For now the Garden is a quiet and sad resting place where great teams once roamed.

For now, the team echoes it’s owner…directionless, purposeless with no particular drive or merit.