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In the first Knicks Championship parade in over 53 years, James Dolan and NYC politicians got 13 minutes of podium mic time. All Knicks players combined got 2 minutes of podium mic time, including 0 minutes for KAT, OG, and Alvarado
Not long after the Knicks were bounced in Game 6 at Indiana, Dolan and the front office conducted exit meetings with players that reinforced what they were probably already thinking – Thibodeau needed to go. Dolan, in particular, desired a change because he felt Thibodeau lacked in three notable areas – collaborating with the staff and players (the head coach adopted the One Voice philosophy), player development (he didn’t utilize his bench enough) and flexibility (“We needed to evolve beyond the old traditional coaching formulas,” Dolan said).
“Did I make mistakes? Of course I did,” he said. “Did I trust people that maybe I shouldn’t have trusted? You go into it as a new owner and if you’re dumb enough, you think you actually know what you’re doing. Believe me, you don’t. And all along, you have everybody whispering in your ear: Do this, do that. You have you guys, the press, telling us where we’re going wrong at every step. And, you can start to feel like a pinball. But …” He paused. “The thing is, is to learn. Right? That might be the thing I feel best about is, I felt, I feel, that now after 25 freaking years of doing this, I might actually have learned something.”
“My ideal operation, like a lot of my other businesses, it’s the same thing: Give me a plan, let’s put together a plan, let’s follow the plan, and I’ll support the plan,” he said. “It’s the same thing with the hockey team. And if you go off plan, come back to me and we’ll talk about it. Once Leon came, he told me in advance what he was going to do and I’d always ask, what can I do to help you? You plan it. I’ll fund it.” Many of Rose’s deals, he simply nodded. Others, he had to be convinced — “Mostly,” he said, “I was always somewhere in the middle.” But he always landed on the side of trusting a GM who’d earned it unconditionally. It has made all the difference for the Knicks. And for Dolan.
And even as those last seven seconds played out, even as the clock slow-walked to 0:00 with the Knicks ahead 94-90, even with a world championship occurring in front of his eyes, in living color, Dolan still didn’t believe what he was seeing. Couldn’t believe. Same as millions of his fellow Knicks fans. “It was like when you’re in your car on a snowy day,” Dolan said. “When you start skidding down the road and you know you’re going to hit something, but there’s no impact yet, you can’t get out of the way, you can’t move the wheels and you’re just waiting for impact. That’s what it felt like. It was like an out-of-body experience.” And then it hit. As it surely hit you. “Oh, my God, this has actually happened!”
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NBA Base: James Dolan says there’s “no reason” to consider selling the team, even if Elon Musk offered to buy it, due to the team’s skyrocketing valuation. "No, I don't think we're going to sell the team... The stock of the team has gone up dramatically." (Via @fox5ny )
WFAN Sports Radio: James Dolan confirms the Knicks have been invited to the White House and have accepted: @craigcartonlive @CMacWFAN
Madison Square Garden has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit alleging hackers accessed sensitive visitor data from up to 26 million people collected through controversial surveillance and facial-recognition systems used at the Knicks home arena. The suit against Madison Square Garden Entertainment was filed Tuesday in New York federal court, one day after cybercrime group ShinyHunters claimed to have hacked the company’s internal systems to obtain everything from biometric facial recognition data and background check information to credit scores and Social Security numbers. The suit comes three days after the Knicks defeated the Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio to take home the 2025-26 championship.
The suit says MSG Entertainment has a “tempestuous history with respect to data privacy,” and notes that “despite a slew of lawsuits regarding this conduct, as well as consternation from privacy advocates and legislators in New York, the Arena—at the direction of its owner James Dolan—continues to collect biometric information from each visitor.” The plaintiff, Carlos Avalo, claims his personal identifying information was collected when he attended a concert at MSG in September 2025. He “reasonably believes” his information was included in the new data breach and is “gravely concerned” about what was exposed.
SNY Knicks: "There's certain things in the NBA that you'd have to be suicidal to do. One of them is the second apron. Cannot go into the second apron. I'll write as big of a check as possible, but I can't write a check that goes into the second apron." - James Dolan on @CartonShowWFAN
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Yaron Weitzman: So there's this idea floating around that one reason the Knicks turned things around was because James Dolan was so consumed by the Sphere that he stopped meddling with the basketball operation. Easy narrative. Also false. A few examples: 1. Dolan regularly met with Thibs and Mike Brown in his office after games — and not briefly. Ask any reporter who covered games at MSG. Postgame press conferences started late all the time because the coach was in with Dolan. 2. Did everyone forget that Dolan was in player exit meetings last year? Or that he was the driving force behind the decision to replace Thibs? That, obviously, turned out to be the correct call. But firing your head coach after the team's best season in 25 years is not the move of a hands-off owner. 3. His son Quentin doesn't just work for the team. He's the Senior Vice President of Player Performance/Science Leader. That's not a title-only role. There are plenty of other examples. These are just three public ones. None of this is a criticism of Dolan. But the idea that he faded into the background in recent years isn't accurate.
This quote couldn’t have been easy for Thibodeau to read, just as Dolan’s newly released video — a pre-playoff pep talk for the team — couldn’t have been easy to see and hear. The owner acknowledged in his speech that the Thibs firing “shocked the world” and that if the Knicks failed in the postseason, the decision-makers would be second-guessed forever. Dolan told the players the change was made because “Leon and I believe that you, the team and the rest of the organization needed to be heard more, needed to work together more, not just led or dictated to. And coach Thibs was a great coach, brilliant, etcetera, but we thought you needed a coach that would pull you together, that would have you play as a team.”
Mike Brown sat to the right of James Dolan, Knicks players seated in front of them at the club’s practice facility. It was before the April 3 shootaround when Dolan gave an impassioned 15-minute speech, recorded on video, that implored his Knicks to sacrifice everything with an unyielding commitment across the next 10 weeks of the playoffs to compete a mission years in the making — and 53 years in all — that would make every one of them champions and kings of New York with rings for one and all for the rest of their lives.
“I don’t know if you understand what it would mean to win the NBA championship,” Dolan told his Knicks. “It would be life-changing… It will stick with you the rest of your lives. And if you don’t win, you’ll be thinking about it the rest of your lives.” And if you do win, this team will belong up in the rafters with the 1970 Knicks and the 1973 Knicks. “You will forever ever be important to New York City,” Dolan said. “No matter where you go and what you do the rest of your lives, when people introduce you, even if you become the president of the United States, they’ll start off with ‘NBA champion, 2026.’ … That’s what’s at stake here.”