Lighten up, Jim
Few people in America are as worthy of scorn and ridicule as Knicks owner James Dolan, who has done little in his life except use the power bestowed to him by his father’s monopolistic business to run a beloved NBA franchise into the ground. What Dolan hates more than anything is having these failures pointed out to him. When a fan yelled at Dolan in 2019 to “sell the team,” Dolan responded by banning the guy from Madison Square Garden for life. When a robust “sell the team” chant broke out during a particularly embarrassing Knicks loss last season, Dolan reportedly instructed Garden security to remove a teenager who joined in on the chant.
So it should come as no surprise to hear that Dolan once whined to the commissioner of the NBA about a four-minute YouTube video that took a few mild jabs at him.
Adam Malamut, the co-creator of the Bleacher Report series Game of Zones, appeared on the Rejecting the Screen podcast this week and told hosts Adam Stanco and Noah Coslov about Dolan’s response to the May 2018 episode titled “Poorzingis.” (Thanks to the New York Daily News for digging up the anecdote.)
Bleacher Report is owned by Turner, which is one of the NBA’s most important business partners. But still, people in the league office didn’t have a problem with the long-running NBA-themed Game of Thrones spoof. Well, “with the exception of one particular owner of the Knicks,” Malamut said.
In the Knicks-themed episode, Walt Frazier sits beside a bed-ridden Kristaps Porziņģis (who was recovering from a torn ACL at the time the video was released).
“Oh, my sweet Latvian child, what do you know about fair?” Frazier says. “Fair is for the elders, who’ve suffered through the entire reign of James Dolan. Fans are born and live and die, all without seeing a playoff win or decent draft pick.”
Dolan later enters the room to cheer Porziņģis up with a song—a medieval version of “Better Find a Church,” by Dolan’s band JD & The Straight Shot—that makes a few references to Dolan’s predilection for handing out poor contracts. It’s nothing too offensive.
And yet Dolan was apparently ticked off enough that he went straight to Adam Silver to complain. Malamut said he didn’t feel comfortable telling the whole story, but he gave an abbreviated version.
“He wasn’t thrilled with it. He let Adam Silver know, who let the president of all of Turner know,” Malamut said. “To us that was pretty cool. What we know is that Adam Silver himself, he’s super cool. They like Game of Zones there. … The league is cool with it, but technically they work for the owners and when [Dolan] complains they have to technically let us know that he wasn’t cool with it. Everyone else was like, ‘Meh, that’s just this particular guy. He’s a little fussy.’”
Now, Malamut is relaying a complaint that was filtered down from the president of Turner to whoever his bosses were, years after the fact. But there’s no reason to doubt the veracity of this story. Why? Because everything we know about James Dolan tells us that this is exactly the kind of thing he would do. Somebody had the gall to make a few wisecracks about him and so he tried to get them in trouble. He’s so pathetic.
The best of SI
The Raptors have bounced back from a slow start by embracing small ball. … The USWNT looked overwhelming in the SheBelieves Cup, but there are weaknesses that the team will need to address before the Olympics. … Even in a stacked NL East, the Phillies could end their playoff drought this year.
The stories behind more than a decade of Michael Phelps photos
Around the sports world
A former USA Gymnastics coach with ties to Larry Nassar was charged with sex crimes including human trafficking and died by suicide hours later. … The NCAA released its plans for replacing teams in March Madness in the event of COVID-19 issues. … A couple got married at Lake Tahoe within spitting distance of last weekend’s outdoor NHL game. … Colin Cowherd said he doesn’t bother trolling fans in cities without big radio audiences.
Ugly, ugly possession
Jamal Murray apologized for passing up the final shot
He wants OUT
The Texans are basically sticking their fingers in their ears and going, “Lalalalala, I can’t hear your trade offer”
Why would Russ want to go to the Bears?
Tom Wilson, everybody!
(He only got a minor penalty.)
Stanford football coach David Shaw was on mop duty during the men’s basketball game against Oregon
It’s the ninth anniversary of “Who do you think you are? I am!”
Drag racing car goes airborne
Not sports
Twitter is coming out with a “super follow” feature so you can pay to read tweets. … With North Korea’s borders closed, a group of Russian diplomats and their families left the country on a hand-pushed trolley.
A good song
Email [email protected] with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
