Rumors that the unapologetic James Dolan is selling the Knicks are like his basketball team winning games.
Both don’t happen everyday. But when they do, mass hysteria ensues.
Sports personality Bill Simmons gave Knicks fans a glimmer of hope — one that doesn’t include Kevin Durant or Zion Williamson — Monday morning when he said Dolan was looking for a buyer.
“Multiple people told me this, who know things. James Dolan is courting offers for the Knicks. It’s happening. It’s on. It’s go-time. He’s courting offers for the Knicks. That’s what I heard at All-Star weekend from people I trust,” Simmons said in his podcast for The Ringer website.
The Garden, however, responded with a vehement denial.
“The story is 100% false. There has been nothing. No discussions. No plans to have discussions — nothing,” MSG said in a statement issued later Monday afternoon. (Dolan, of course, serves as executive chairman and CEO of the Madison Square Garden Company.)
A similar note was sent out after Dolan told ESPN in December that he’d consider selling at the right price.
“We have no plans to sell the Knicks,” that statement read.
Take each statement as you will.
Dolan has been rumored to be looking at a sale for months, but actively pursuing offers would be new, promising ground — if true.
“The Knicks are just a pain in the a–, people s–t on him for it. He feels if he can just sell the Knicks for some crazy price, then he can put the money into that music/in-game experience stuff that he cares about. So, the Knicks are available,” Simmons said.
It’s an open secret that Dolan dislikes owning the team and the ridicule it brings. In a song he wrote for the website Deadspin, he called owning the team “hell.”
Simmons’ reasoning on the business end checks out, too. He says Dolan is more interested in the MSG business as an entertainment venue: “He really cares about the buildings and the in-game/in-concert experience. And he wants to put even more money into that. Like the Forum in L.A., which is an amazing place to see a concert, what they’ve done with MSG. He really cares about the buildings.”
In recent years, MSG has changed its business structures to separate the sports teams from the entertainment interests, which would help facilitate a sale of the Knicks or Rangers.
Dolan, in that ESPN December piece, said there hadn’t been any “bona fide offers.”
“I still have a responsibility to your shareholders. They’re not there because they’re fans. You don’t invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a stock because you’re a fan. You do it because you think that the business is going to increase in value, that the stock price is going to go up,” Dolan said. “You have a responsibility as the guy who runs the place to deliver on that for them, that’s being open and transparent. And so in that position, I could never say that I wouldn’t consider selling the Knicks. Now, my family is not in that position, and they are the majority shareholders. They hold the majority of the vote. … As a majority owner, I don’t want to sell, either.”
The Knicks remain at the top of the Forbes’ annual value list of NBA teams, breaking the $4 billion mark.
If Dolan decides to sell, the asking price will likely be more.
Knicks fans, meanwhile, can only hope the rumors become reality.
