Guest Post: An Open Letter to James Dolan

This off-season has made everyone more passionate than normal. Casual fans started listening more intently, and die-hard fans started speaking up even more than usual. A long-time friend of No Regard, asking to be known here simply as Mugsy2Manute, is a member of the latter group. He's also been a Knicks fan since birth and sent us this piece not because we asked for it, but because he couldn't keep quiet under these circumstances. Besides, he's a smart NBA fan and who sent us a picture of James Dolan next to an Ewok; how could we say no?

Dear Mr. Dolan,

If your marriage was in shambles, and you needed outside help, would you hire Tiger Woods as your counselor? No? Didn't think so. What if you were Barack Obama, tasked with responding to the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf. Would you send the disgraced, former head of FEMA Mike Brown to Louisiana to help get things under control? Doubtful. So, pray tell, what in God's good name are you thinking rehiring Isiah Thomas as a "consultant" after firing him two years ago for driving an already descending Knicks team deeper into the abyss? I mean, are you for real?

Mr. Dolan, let's just try and recount the reasons this is the equivalent of Bill Paxton's category five twister heading straight to midtown. For one, Thomas is a bonafide perv and the women of MSG must already be concerned at the thought of having to once again share an office with this man. It's hard for me to imagine how ownership can expect any of its female staff to respect it at all after this.

From a managerial perspective, this can only end poorly. Donnie Walsh is rumored to have confronted Zeke some time last week and told him, straight-up, don't come around here no more. At that point, apparently, Zeke went to you Mr. Dolan, behind Walsh's back and asked for this position. You obliged.


There is no way Walsh can't feel horrendously slighted, undermined, and confused by this. As the general manager, he is ostensibly the one tasked with assembling the team, making draft day decisions, trades around the deadline, and other key moves. And as I noted in my previous post, I think a decent number of Knicks fans thought he was finally doing a a pretty good job of performing these tasks. Does ownership not share that confidence? I guess not enough to be happy with the cook we had in the kitchen. But now we've got two, and it's unclear who is wielding the bigger knife.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, for a franchise that has so consistently alienated its fan base over the past decade, this feels like a slap in the face with an ice cold hand. Zeke's firing was one of the few things Knicks fans could agree was a step in the right direction for the recently wayward franchise. His rehiring, accordingly, is a Kafkaesque, confusing step backwards. This is so out of touch and ignorant of the majority's sentiment, it almost feels like an intentionally dick move. Just when we thought things were ascendant, you hire Zeke, and there's no other way to say it: This shit is just bananas.

I finished my previous post by raising a glass of beer, or wine (not quite champagne) to the sky and toasting the oncoming season. Barkeep, this time I'll have a whiskey. In fact, you better make it a double.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Confused fan 1 of 1,000,000,000