He's long been the NBA's poster owner for the rich and obnoxious. The New York Knicks winning their first championship since 1973 bought him some grace, but now that Karl-Anthony Towns is being squeezed on his next contract extension, Dolan is back in the public crosshairs as the man seemingly intent on poking holes in a ship that has finally set sail. That's a matter of opinion, but I would argue no.
Dolan is a lot of things, but he's never been cheap. Over the years, the Knicks have handed out as much stupid money as anyone. But since Leon Rose took over as team president in 2020, the Knicks have been one of the league's most well-run organizations, and Dolan has, at least from a personnel and staffing standpoint, mostly sat back and allowed that to happen.
He still does plenty of strange stuff. He just brought back Isiah Thomas, who was unceremoniously ousted from his positions as team president and coach following a disastrous on-court tenure and a sexual harassment suit that ultimately cost Dolan and MSG close to $12 million in punitive damages, to the organization as part of its newly formed board of directors. He's been at war with Charles Oakley for going on a decade.
He's reportedly turned Madison Square Garden into a sort of shadow surveillance center, as detailed by Wired magazine -- which noted earlier this year, among other bombshells, that "fans who've been critical of Dolan have had their faces captured and then put on watch lists." But the idea that Dolan is suddenly ready, or even eager, to chop the legs out from beneath a championship roster for which he actually, finally, has gotten some credit just to put a few more million bucks in his pocket seems more based in reputation than reality. Again, he's an easy target for this kind of criticism, and frankly, it's a twisted sort of fun to start pointing fingers at someone like Dolan. But the truth is likely much closer to what lords over every NBA franchise.
It's called the second apron. If you're sick of hearing about the second apron, you're not alone. Most of us are sick of writing about it, too.
But the simple truth is crossing this total team salary line -- set at $221 million this season -- is too punishing to mess with. Shortly after the Knicks won the title, Dolan went on local radio and stated unequivocally that New York would not be going past the second apron in its quest to keep this roster together. He deemed a second-apron breach, in fact, to be "suicidal" and, in a basketball sense, he wasn't far off.
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