If there's anything that could disrupt the New York Knicks‘ immaculate vibes this season, it's James Dolan—and, boy howdy, is the owner of the Knicks trying hard to do so. Even as the Knicks have raced to their best season in a decade, Dolan has declared war on the New York State Liquor Authority as the state mulls revoking Madison Square Garden's liquor license over Dolan's controversial practice of using facial recognition software to identify and ban Dolan's personal enemies from MSG. Now, as reported by the New York Times, Dolan ordered a private eye to follow and intimidate Charles Stravalle, a retired police officer and part-time SLA employee who's leading the investigation into MSG.
Disturbingly, the P.I. followed Stravalle for over 100 miles and was cited for possession of a weapon, carrying a knife “in excess of permissable length,” according to text messages between government officials that were reviewed by the Times.
Beyond his feud with the SLA, Dolan is waging a complex, multi-front war with New York State; MSG's operating permit to host events with more than 2,500 attendees will expire in July. Similarly, Dolan is scrabbling to hold onto the arena's $43 million annual tax exemption, which the New York State Senate is pushing to remove. Unsurprisingly, government officials haven't responded kindly to Dolan's approach, presenting the 67 year-old as a petty, vengeful man..
“It’s intimidation tactics, full stop,” New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal said to the New York Times. “And it’s objectionable on its face. James Dolan is using the money he receives as a tax break to hire private investigators to intimidate public officials.”
There's no shortage of bad owners across pro sports and yet Dolan somehow continues to pioneer new, increasingly bizarre modes of badness. Lots of owners are cheapskates, but no other owners use dystopian surveillance technology to make sure that everybody is being nice to them and then go full Tony Soprano on a part-time civil servant when they get in trouble for violating people's civil liberties.
Just as the NBA forced out Donald Sterling and Robert Sarver, it's time for the other 29 owners do the same with Dolan, if only to eliminate the possibility of suffering the same fate as the New York State Liquor Authority investigator and getting stalked by one of Dolan's knife-wielding goombas, Sell the team.
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