During the Knicks’ title run last spring, few developments were as warm and fuzzy as seeing dozens of former Knicks behind the basket nearest the Knick bench, cheering alongside the Garden faithful.
Stephon Marbury showed a passion rarely seen in his playing days. Larry Johnson worried John Starks’ reactions were so over-zealous he’d get called for a technical foul, 24 years since his last game. Patrick Ewing and Walt Frazier traveled with the team on the road, and were there to celebrate the Game 5 clincher in San Antonio. “Once a Knick, always a Knick,” the franchise loves to claim.
But the devil is in the details. Given who is welcome to return and who isn’t, it’s fair to wonder if the biggest threat to the Knicks’ chances of repeating isn’t the Spurs, or injuries, or complacency, but their owner.
Could James Dolan get in the way of Knicks' title window?
From late April until early June, New York went six weeks without losing a playoff game. There were a couple historic comebacks in that run, but for the most part they pummeled their opponents to an extent never before seen at basketball’s highest level of play. The only loss was Game 3 of the Finals, when Donald Trump accepted James Dolan's invitation to attend, inconveniencing Knicks fans and Penn Station for hours
Still, the ring is the thing, so when New York defeated San Antonio the future gleamed bright and endless. The first smudge appeared when Dolan pre-empted the championship parade to announce he wouldn’t let the Knicks spend into the second apron, meaning goodbye Mitchell Robinson.
The Knicks let their longest-tenured player, one of their most popular, leave for their biggest rival. A player at the center (literally) of one of the league’s best two-way teams. Their only rim protector and one of the great offensive rebounders ever. Gone. Not because they have someone to take his place. Not because the front office felt that was the way to go. That was Dolan’s decision.
In the era of the second apron, championship teams are on the clock once the confetti starts to fall. But going over that apron doesn’t trigger immediate penalties; the Nuggets and Cavaliers have both been above it, yet Evan Mobley and Jamal Murray weren’t suddenly on the trade block. Robinson is New York’s very first apron casualty; without him, their title chances are clearly lesser. And this issue isn’t going away anytime soon.
Miles McBride may be the next “once a Knick, always a Knick” who’s no longer a Knick because he wants to be paid what he deserves. Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart are next up for extensions, and neither is putting on a happy face and pretending they’re cool going without one. Dolan publicly declaring extension talks off the table was a reminder of how powerful power can be—and how brittle.
Title runs today are abbreviated by design. The best way to appeal to new blood is to do right by the old. If the only players the Knicks appear to value are those who'll agree to be underpaid, morale will suffer. Are Towns, Hart or McBride going to dive as hard after loose balls for an organization that unilaterally ended contract negotiations? What message might that send to players around the league?
After winning the title, Dolan announced the Knicks had “accepted” an invitation to the White House. Yet this preseason Mike Brown clarified that’s “still something that our guys, or the organization, is internally discussing and, you know, whatever we decide to do, we'll all do together.”
If the owner is announcing free agent decisions without the front office’s knowledge, and pledging grown men with free will to be somewhere they haven't agreed to, that isn’t a failure to communicate. That’s a philosophical chasm between owner and players. Not good when 29 teams are united in hoping to bring you down.
The Knicks are NBA champions for a lot of reasons, an underrated one being no one tries to do what they can’t. They know their limits. If James Dolan doesn’t learn his soon, he’s going to cost the Knicks their shot at repeating. All the money in the world won’t buy him absolution for that.
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