The New York Knicks were last of all 30 NBA franchises to release a statement amid the surging Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd's death. Even when they released a two-sentence statement on June 9, it was the typical bland, cookie-cutter wording designed specifically not to piss off the racists and bigots.
James Dolan's carefully delineated words only condemned racism, bigotry, violence, and hate without getting into specifics. They didn't stand on the side of a league that is predominantly Black that's exhaustingly looking for support:
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) June 9, 2020
Don't think for a minute that Dolan's tardy and lackluster actions have gone unnoticed by soon-to-be free agents:
“I think it's a big black eye on the Knicks as an organization,” an agent whose firm represents multiple stars told Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. “It will continue to be something that players look down upon, and it further explains why guys like Kevin Durant [passed on the Knicks]. You got all the resources and all the richness of the NBA, and still people don't want to associate themselves with it.”
Others painted Dolan's lackluster response more colorfully:
“James Dolan and the Knicks organization, they're telling you something by the statement that they make or do not make,” said Dr. Todd Boyd, a teacher of race and popular culture at the University of Southern California. “And it's important for us as a society to be receptive to what they're telling us, even if what they're telling us is they don't give a f*ck. There's value in knowing that. And that's how it looks in this moment.
“They may very well give a f*ck,” Boyd continued, “but their actions don't indicate that. So there's value in knowing that they are misreading the room, that they don't appreciate the significance of this set of events, that the position that they've taken is one inconsistent with perhaps the majority of players on their team and maybe the majority of players in the league.”
Players around the league have gone from “not very happy” to “flabbergasted” by the Knicks' late and evasive response. One key player on the Knicks is reportedly upset about it, and other teammates are as well.
Dolan's unwillingness to stand by the side of his mostly Black players and the rest of the league is something that will soon come to bite him where it hurts the most — right in his pockets.
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