New York Knicks owner James Dolan told a poison-pen-pal fan to root for the Brooklyn Nets instead of his team.
The struggling owner, whose note appears in full at Deadspin.com, wrote to the complaining correspondent:
You are a sad person. Why would anybody write such a hateful letter. I am.just guessing but ill bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess. What have you done that anyone would consider positive or nice. I am betting nothing. In fact ill bet you are negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21 year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it. Maybe it will help you become a person that folks would like to have around. In the mean while start rooting.for the Nets because the Knicks dont want you.
Dolan prefaces his name with a “Respectfully” in the note.
The fan cited the team’s disastrous dealings with Isiah Thomas and “lowballing” of Steve Kerr, who opted to take the Golden State Warriors job, as examples of Dolan’s bungling. “As a knicks fan for in excess of 60 years, I am utterly embarrassed by your dealings with the Knicks,” he writes. “Sell them so their fans can at least look forward to growing them in a positive direction.”
Dolan’s dis follows a similar response to an electronic missive sent to the Colorado Rockies last season. When a fan wrote that the Monfort family had no business owning a baseball team, Dick Monfort shot back: “By the way you talk maybe Denver doesn’t deserve a franchise, maybe time for it to find a new home. Thanks.”
After missing the playoffs for six straight seasons starting in 2004-2005, the Knicks made the postseason for three consecutive years before last season’s 9th-place finish in the Eastern Conference.
The team sits dead last among all NBA teams with a 10-41 record this season. But their break-the-bank hiring of Phil Jackson to manage basketball operations, and humungous contracts, suggests that Dolan tries to place a winner on the court. According to BasketballInsiders.com, the team comes in second in payroll at $81 million.
Patrick Ewing isn’t walking through that door. Willis Reed isn’t even limping through that door.