The Lawyer James Dolan Cursed Out Is An Adjunct Professor, Not A Drunk.

New York Knicks basketball owner James Dolan — who is a cautionary tale against nepotism — cursed out a fan outside Madison Square Garden, earlier this week.

The fan, Mike Hamersky, saw Dolan stepping into his limo and shouted, “Sell the team, Jim.” That is not a heckle, that is a moral imperative. James Dolan should, in fact, be required by law to sell the Knicks, apologize to New York, and then be sent to a farm upstate.

Dolan didn’t take kindly to being reminded, again, that he has failed to take care of the plaything his father Charles Dolan gifted him so little Jimmy wouldn’t screw up Dad’s real business, Cablevision. Instead of getting into his limo and being whisked away to Mar-A-Lago or something, Dolan turned and confronted Hamersky. Deadspin reports:

“I did call him an asshole,” Dolan tells me, “because he is an asshole.”

Dolan determined that Hamersky was intoxicated and ordered security to prevent him from entering the arena. Yes, this is just like what he did to Knick’s great Charles Oakley. When Dolan doesn’t like what you have to say, he literally orders his security force to go deal with you.

Thing is, Hamersky wasn’t drunk. Hamersky has his own law firm and was coming to the game straight from Fordham Law School where he teaches as an adjunct. Unless Hamersky was drinking in class, there literally wasn’t enough time between class and tip-off for him to get wasted.

We reached out to Hamersky and he told us that the reaction he’s gotten from people has been “universally positive.” Of course it has been. James Dolan is one of least liked owners in all of sports, Hamersky is a season ticket holder who dutifully went out to the Garden to support the woeful team.

In defending his actions, Dolan said this.

“I get it. They call me names every day in the paper. Fine. I get it,” Dolan says. “But you’re walking up to the place where I work? It’s like they’re laying in wait for you. It’s like stalking me outside my home. Some people tend to think of team owners like politicians. But we’re not! I didn’t run for any office. These people who yell at you act surprised when you yell back. It’s like when I got that incredibly derogatory email, and so I wrote back an incredibly derogatory email, and these people are surprised?”

If you are not a sports fan, or a Knicks fan specifically, Dolan’s statements might sound like the pathetic caterwauling of a poor little rich boy. They are that, but they also belie why Jim seems wholly unequipped to own a public facing corporation located in the heart of Manhattan. Let’s give it a close read:

• “They call me names every day in the paper.” — The New York Knicks are 30-48. Lower bowl tickets cost a couple of hundred dollars. Calling Dolan names is pretty much the ONLY REASON TO BUY A TICKET. Seeing “good basketball” certainly isn’t.
• “But you’re walking up to the place where I work?” — YOU WORK IN A STADIUM.
• “It’s like they’re laying in wait for you.” — OR, it’s like they were laying in wait for tip-off at a game they bought tickets to see.
• “It’s like stalking me outside my home.” — Dear James Dolan, Madison Square Garden is the world’s greatest arena, it is not YOUR HOUSE. You have a house, where I’m pretty sure nobody is allowed to go visit unless they pretend that you have basic human competence. The Garden is supposed to be a place for the people of New York.
• “Some people tend to think of team owners like politicians. But we’re not!” — No, we are all painfully aware that team owners are NOT like politicians. We can’t vote them out of the team. That’s why good people like Hamersky try to SHAME them into doing the right thing.
• “I didn’t run for any office.” — Right. You didn’t have to ask for the team. Your daddy gave it to you, just like he probably bought the people who you think are your friends.
• “These people who yell at you act surprised when you yell back.” — It is, in fact, surprising, when a man who owns a business stops to curse out one of his paying customers.

Sell the team, Jim. Sell the damn team. We can’t make you. But you’re going to need a much larger security force if you expect them to chase down everybody who yells at you.

PS: Hamersky was able to dodge Dolan’s security team and get into Madison Square Garden, because Dolan has a real problem hiring people who can play defense. The Knicks won, 100 – 91, over the Chicago Bulls.

James Dolan Called Me An Asshole, Knicks Fan Says; “He Is An Asshole,” Dolan Says [Deadspin]

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