James Dolan is an American Businessman and the owner of the New York Knicks. He serves as the executive chairman and chief executive officer of Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment, and executive chairman of MSG Networks.
As chairman of the organizations, Dolan is in charge of all internal operations as well as the professional sports teams – the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, and their regional sports networks, MSG Network and MSG Plus. Dolan recently vacated several positions on NBA board committees.
Why did James Dolan resign from the NBA board committee?
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, New York Knicks team owner James Dolan reportedly resigned from a number of roles he held across several NBA board committees in July. Dolan sent a memo to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the other 29 team owners announcing his resignation from the advisory/finance and media committees of the board of governors.
“Given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion,” Dolan wrote in the memo.
Though it’s unclear what Dolan meant by “all that has occurred lately,” he also stated in the memo that he will no longer be attending board of governor meetings, even though he will still be able to cast Knicks votes. Rather, Wojnarowski reports that Jamaal Lesane, the Knicks general counsel, will speak on behalf of the team at board meetings.
“My hope is that the Knicks will be treated equally and fairly as all other NBA teams,” Dolan said. “… As you know, I am very busy with all my duties at MSG family of companies. I need to apply my time where I can be most productive.”
James Dolan’s relationship with NBA hierarchy
According to Wojnarowski, Dolan voted against the WNBA’s expansion into San Francisco and Michael Jordan’s recent sale of the Charlotte Hornets.
This information was made public after the Knicks sued the Raptors in August, claiming they were the victim of proprietary information theft, and demanded $10 million in damages.
The Knicks claim in the court document, which CBS Sports was able to access, that Ikechukwu Azotam, the head of video for the Raptors and an assistant player development coach, stole “play frequency reports, a prep book for the 2022–23 season, video scouting files and materials and more” from the Knicks before joining the Raptors.
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