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Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan is looking to duplicate the success of his Las Vegas Sphere with a new, eye-popping, high-tech venue just outside Washington, DC — a massive orb-shaped arena at National Harbor backed by roughly $200 million in public and private investment. The proposed 6,000-seat venue in Prince George’s County, Md., would become Sphere’s second US location and its first scaled-down design, promising a year-round entertainment draw projected to generate more than $1 billion annually once it opens.
James Dolan: The team is really built on the shoulders of Tom Thibodeau, right? He built — he built that core, right? We went as far as — as we did last year. And so you really gotta take your — your hat off to Tom and the job that he did. But we did come to the conclusion that, you know, we had an idea of how we wanted to organize the team — and actually it goes for both teams — and that meant we needed to evolve, right? Actually beyond the old traditional coaching, right? You know, um, formulas, etc. And, you know, we tried to work that with Tom. It really wasn’t his thing.”
Carton: “They're like, ‘Banner, banner.’ I go, ‘I can guarantee you we are not raising a banner.’ Not that we’re not proud of winning.” Dolan: “Yes. No, we are going to raise a banner.” Carton: “No, you're not.” Dolan: “We're going to raise the NBA Championship. That’s the banner we want to raise.” Carton: “I said for all the accomplishments way back in the day the Knicks had… James Dolan and the New York Knicks are not — as much as it's great to win — and I think what Mike Brown said afterward, which was important: teams have to learn how to win. That was a playoff game. It was a Game 7 atmosphere. Spurs are a really good basketball team. That fourth quarter was awesome. And I'm a fan of the Cup because you get special games like that in the regular season.” Dolan: “Yeah.” Carton: “But I know the NBA wants teams to raise a banner. The Lakers said no for a while. Eventually, they did because LeBron wanted one. Milwaukee said no for a while. Eventually, they did. Was there ever a thought — we're going to raise an Emirates Cup banner at Madison Square Garden?” Dolan: “No.”
Dolan said in the WFAN interview that he doesn’t expect New York to make a significant trade at the deadline. “We love our team right now. They have chemistry; they all like each other. I’ve never seen a locker room more copacetic. There’s a lot of energy in there,” Dolan said. “I don’t – (team president) Leon (Rose) could always overrule me – but I don’t see us making a big change. Because we don’t have – we’ve got to keep building up this group. This group can win a championship. I believe that.”
Dolan was answering a question from the hosts about the Knicks and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He said he wasn’t aware of any trade talks between the Knicks and Bucks in the offseason. Later in the interview, he reiterated that he didn’t see the Knicks making any big changes before the Feb. 5 trade deadline. “That’s what I think our plan is, yes … I talk to Leon every day and look, nothing is impossible; I won’t rule anything out, but who do you want to lose (in a trade)?” Dolan said. “You don’t get something without giving something. Who do you want to lose?”
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Did the Knicks make the right call with Thibodeau and Brown? The Knicks had a better record at this point in the season last year under Thibodeau. But Brown has played the bench more often, something Dolan thinks will pay dividends in the postseason. “Look how far we got with our group last year, and then take a look at who was playing and who wasn’t playing and then we had injuries,” the owner said. “We’re going into this season, into the second half of the season, Josh is still out and Landry is coming back soon. We’ve got depth, and if we stay healthy, we’ll go into the playoffs in much better condition than we went into the playoffs last year.”
Leon Rose, the camera-shy team president, isn’t leaving the team any time soon, according to James Dolan. “As far as I know, Leon is with us long term,” Dolan said Monday in a WFAN interview with host Craig Carton. “We don’t talk about the end to this. We have a five-year plan. Right now we’re more like on a two- to three-year plan.” Rose, the former agent, signed as team president just before the pandemic in 2020. The team has been successful under his watch, qualifying for the playoffs in four of his five full seasons — including the franchise’s first run to the conference finals since 2000. Rose’s contract status is unknown, but it was believed he originally signed a five-year deal.
New York Knicks owner James Dolan said in a rare radio interview Monday that he’ll consider anything short of an NBA championship this season a disappointment. “Yeah, we want to get to the finals and we should win the finals,” said Dolan, 70, who also owns the New York Rangers. “This is sports, this is business and anything can happen, but getting to the finals, we absolutely got to do. Winning the finals, we should win.”
Kris Pursiainen: James Dolan on Tom Thibodeau on WFAN: “I won’t say you can’t win a title with Tom Thibodeau…if you want to build a long-term, competitive, you need someone who’s much more of a collaborator than Tom was. Tom was still a great coach, he should coach again in the NBA. If I had a franchise I was just starting, he would be a goldmine” “…We talked to Tom all the time. Look, I don’t want to get too deep into what- the interaction. That whole last year we were talking to Tom … he’d probably tell you that he’s stubborn. But he’d also tell you that he’s right”
Kris Pursiainen: James Dolan says there’s no truth to any rumors regarding Giannis Antetokounmpo, as far as he’s aware. “I’ve never seen a locker room more copacetic … Leon can always overrule me, but I don’t see us making a big change. We’ve got to build up this group…can win a championship”
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Kris Pursiainen: James Dolan says he never had the thought to raise a banner for the NBA Cup. Says the organization wants an NBA Championship, not “the consolation prize” “We’re proud to have the Emirates Cup, but we want to hang a championship banner”
James Dolan is breaking his silence. The Knicks owner is scheduled to appear at 5:30 p.m. Monday on WFAN for the relaunch of Craig Carton’s show, the radio host announced. Dolan was last interviewed by a media member about the Knicks or Rangers in January 2023, when he also sat down with Carton on WFAN.
Former New York Knicks star Charles Oakley must pay more than $642,000 in lawyer fees to Madison Square Garden for deleting text messages during a court battle over his ejection from a game eight years ago, according to court documents. The 61-year-old former power forward — who filed a defamation lawsuit against the arena firm and its CEO James Dolan in September 2017 — is accused of sending the company’s high-priced attorneys on a wallet-busting wild goose chase.