New York Knicks: 10-plus years in free-fall with no signs of slowing

The New York Knicks continue to struggle after the departure of Isiah Thomas

Media relations policies under Dolan

By this point, we’ve more than established the fact that life as a New York Knicks fan had been pretty depressing for a while and the overall culture within the organization from the treatment of players to those working in the office was also pretty terrible. So, it almost goes without saying that being assigned to cover the Knicks’ from a media perspective would follow suit.

By the time I’m done with this series, I expect to have spent two to three weeks altogether researching, writing and rehashing all of the information with my husband. And let me tell you, I already know that I’m going to need a break from the Knicks by then. I’m so happy that after this series is finished, I have the freedom to pursue other NBA stories. I can’t imagine spending year after year after year not having anything to write about other than variations of,

The same.

Terrible.

Story.

One reporter said:

"I don’t know how many times I can use ‘chaos,’ ‘mayhem,’ ‘dysfunction’ to describe this team You feel like a broken record after a while. On a beat like this, you write 250 to 300 stories a year on a team, and occasionally you’d like the theme to change a bit. If you’re writing the same theme every day, it’s not satisfying."

I can definitely relate to this sentiment because I’m putting thesaurus.com to good use trying to find different ways to express my surprise and incredulity at the sheer quantity, consistency, and depth of all of the terrible decisions I’m learning about.

The quote above is from an article entitled, “Life in Knicks Hell” that was published in November of 2007 and it discussed how covering the Knicks was not a happy assignment but it wasn’t just about what was being covered.

The words used by reporters talking about what it was like to be on the Knicks’ beat are both enlightening and disheartening. The words, ‘detention cell’ are used to describe the room in which the Knicks executives and coaches met with the press. Based on the picture, yeah, I understand why someone might say that.

Other descriptions include; ‘patronizing lecture’, ‘bitter’, ‘miserable’, ‘systematic repression’ and ‘the Gulag’.

Okay, just so we’re all on the same page, a quick history lesson. The Gulag was a government agency in the Soviet Union that reached its peak during the reign of Dictator Joseph Stalin. It was their job to run the Soviet Union’s system of forced labor camps from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Yes, the use of the word Gulag is most certainly either an over-exaggeration by the person that said it or it was used on purpose for the sake of hyperbole. Either way, the fact that this word came to mind at all tells you that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

James Dolan’s paranoia, in general, has been well documented. And what better recipe is there for a poor relationship than the combination of the paranoid, incompetent, owner of the most dysfunctional team in sports and the people whose job it is to write about that team?

But I never would have realized if I hadn’t read this story that just talking to a member of the Knicks’ organization as a reporter meant that someone from the Knicks’ media relations team would be watching, even taking notes during the conversations. This policy includes when a reporter is talking to someone from the media relations team. And in some cases, certain reporters have been followed around the Garden by a security guard, like a shoplifting suspect in a Rodeo Drive boutique.

Maybe they’re afraid that a reporter will stumble across a secret room buried deep in the bowels of Madison Square Garden where James Dolan’s head separates from his body revealing that Dolan isn’t human at all. Instead, Dolan’s body is really a mechanical suit that is run by two white lab rats bend on world domination, one thin and goofy and one with a giant head.

No?

Are you sure?

Okay then. That really would explain a lot though, wouldn’t it?

All right, back to reality.

I’ve always found it fascinating how people whose world view is seen through a filter of paranoia and fear of criticism so often end up in a self-fulfilling prophecy. To have a poor performance on the court year after year is one thing. But on top of that, to create what can only be described as a hostile environment for the people whose job it is to report on your team? Dolan couldn’t have created a situation more likely to result in criticism if that’s what he had set out to do.

It’s a natural inclination for us to want to talk about those who treat us badly. For most of us, when other people feel the need to vent about something we’ve done or said, we may never even know about it. It certainly doesn’t become public knowledge. But James Dolan’s complete lack of self-awareness has caused him to create policies that serve only to make him a target for the kinds of stories that he’s most concerned about.