Knicks Owner James Dolan on Friday said that he "should not have responded to a vitriolic email from a Knicks fan with an angry one of his own," according to Schonbrun & Keh of the N.Y. TIMES. Dolan, speaking at an NBA Cares City Harvest charity event, said, "I get emails all the time, like I’m sure you understand, right? And I generally don’t respond to the bad ones, right? This time, it just caught me at the wrong moment, and I responded, sort of a tit-for-tat. ... I know I should not have done that, and I did it anyway because he made me angry" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/14). Dolan: "There is a message I want to say -- I actually got a whole bunch of emails that were really very nice. I did not get all hateful emails ... so if you have written me a nice email, encouraging, etc., even if it’s a nice email about being upset about losing, you are actually going to hear back from me. If you wrote one of those other kind of emails, you are not going to hear back from me" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 2/14). In N.Y., Michael Powell referred to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's assessment of Dolan's e-mail, and wrote, "The commissioner is correct. Dolan is a consummate New Yorker, of the 1 percent variety." Dolan "breaks federal labor laws and fires union leaders with impunity; he mints money from a public cable monopoly; and he gets a property tax exemption" worth $54M this year for MSG, "a for-profit enterprise" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/15). Meanwhile, also in N.Y., Marc Berman reports Dolan "had to move from his regular seat for Sunday night’s All-Star Game in his building." The issue "was rectified as the owner still sat on the opposite baseline" (N.Y. POST, 2/16).
DIM LIGHTS, BIG CITY: On Long Island, Neil Best wonders if the NBA needs "a contender in its biggest market," as both the Knicks and Nets are currently out of the playoff race. Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban said, "It used to be a big deal when media was concentrated and we watched Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. Now it doesn't really matter because of social media." ESPN President John Skipper: "It's fine. We have long ago quit worrying about, 'Oh, we have to have a team from here or there.' ... I love watching the Warriors. We're going to be fine" (NEWSDAY, 2/16).
