Cablevision and MSG, both owned by the Dolan family, yesterday released statements in response to a N.Y. Daily News story that claimed that the Knicks waited to announce G Jeremy Lin's potential season-ending injury until after the deadline for season-ticket holders to purchase tickets for all four rounds of the playoffs. Cablevision's statement began, "Today's story in the New York Daily News is just another in a long list of articles and cover stories designed to provoke Cablevision and The Madison Square Garden Company." MSG's statement read, "Today's Daily News story is completely inaccurate, and serves only as another example of fabricated reporting by Mr. Zuckerman's newspaper. The suggestion that the timing of Jeremy Lin's injury report is in any way connected to a longstanding Knicks playoff ticket deadline is a malicious attack on The Madison Square Garden Company. Jeremy Lin decided on Saturday to have surgery now in hopes that he would be able to return in time for, or at least during, the playoffs. The Knicks have sold out 61 games in a row, including last season's playoffs, and as standard practice we provided season ticket holders a first opportunity benefit to reserve playoff tickets before going on sale to the general public" (MSG). Both companies said yesterday they are "actively pursuing their remedial options" against the newspaper (CABLEFAX DAILY, 4/3). N.Y. Daily News Editor-In-Chief Colin Myler said the column, which was featured on the newspaper's back page, "has been totally misrepresented by Mr. Dolan." He also said that the N.Y. Daily News has been "more supportive of Lin than other papers." N.Y. Daily News sportswriter Frank Isola, who wrote the column, responded on Twitter: "The News can defend its coverage for the past 11 years. Can MSG defend what the Knicks have done over that same span" (NEWSDAY, 4/3).
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING? YAHOO SPORTS' Eric Freeman wrote this behavior would be "fairly bizarre on the part of the Knicks, because it presumes that their fans ... would only buy playoff tickets if Lin was playing." Freeman: "Lin drives a lot of interest, but Knicks fans were around long before February. If anyone has reason to care about this elaborate plan, it's the scalpers and re-sellers who stood to make lots more money off Lin's first playoff appearance" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 4/2). ESPN's Michael Wilbon said, “The amount of tickets that the New York Knicks can sell for any game, even a preseason game, has nothing to do with Jeremy Lin. This is ‘Lin-sanity’ on the part of anybody who believes this is some act of the Knicks to say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to sell some more tickets.’ I’ve been to a whole lot of Knicks playoff games since 1980, and they’re all sold out. All of them. They don’t need Lin to sell tickets.” ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser: “They could sell that out 10 times for the playoffs. That’s a complete red herring” (“PTI,” ESPN, 4/2).
