If we have learned anything over the last few years it is that the quickest path to James Dolan’s bad side is publicly saying that he should sell the New York Knicks. It is a lesson that Staten Island congressman Max Rose is in the middle of learning.
According to an article in the New York Post, the owner of the New York Knicks, Rangers, Madison Square Garden, and MSG Networks has given $50,000 from his company to the Governing Majority Fund, a political action committee set up to help conservatives win seats in the House of Representatives.
The Governing Majority Fund is run by former Representatives John Faso and Jeff Denham. A source close to Fasso told The Post that Dolan told Fasso that he “got pissed off at Max Rose because he said something about the Knicks being a sh–ty team and then Dolan turned around and wrote a $50,000 check to his PAC.”
Dolan has also donated to Rose’s opponent, Republican Nicole Malliotakis, directly and is encouraging his friends to do the same.
The Post obtained an email Dolan sent encouraging the recipients to donate as much as possible to the Malliotakis campaign and he references Rose’s crack about him needing to sell the Knicks as the reason why.
“It will help send a strong message to all NY politicians that the Knicks will not be their political ticket to reelection,” the email reads. “The most you can donate is $2,800. I cannot do this alone due to the limit on campaign contributions.”
James Dolan is taking a big leap here. Not only is he assuming his friends are as hurt by Max Rose’s comments as he is, he is also under the impression that those friends don’t also think the Knicks would be better off with a new owner.
A survey of Knicks fans conducted by The Athletic last year revealed that 91.8% disagree that James Dolan has been a good owner for the team. Only 4.2% said they trusted him to run the team well going forward.
Real Clear Politics calls the race between Rose and Malliotakis a “toss up.”
