James Dolan is known for a lot of things. Having a thick skin is not one of them.
The Knicks had an early noon Saturday start against the Kings (that time works better for overseas markets), and once the West Coast team got used to the morning start it pulled away and beat New York. After the game, Dolan was among the people walking out from courtside seats when a fan yelled, “sell the Knicks!”
That didn’t end well for the fan. Of course this was being videoed, and of course TMZ got ahold of it.
According to the report, at this point the fan was held until two police officers and some security guards came over, they checked the ID of the fan then tossed him. Madison Square Garden released a statement to TMZ saying, “Our policy is and will continue to be that if you are disrespectful to anyone in our venues, we will ask you not to return.”
There is a certain amount of “don’t poke the bear” here. You call out Dolan, you have to know you run the risk of his ire.
That said, if Dolan ejected everyone who called him out at Knicks games half of Manhattan would be banned from Madison Square Garden.
Knicks fans have dreamed of Dolan selling the Knicks for more than a decade now, and while there are the occasional rumors, all the evidence points to him enjoying the status and prestige that comes with owning the Knicks and not wanting to give that up. Plus the value of the franchise keeps going up no matter how he manages it, so why would he get out of the Knicks business?