k-mart on the Dolan era: “it was the front office. it wasn’t Dolan, it was the front office”


k-mart on the Dolan era: “it was the front office. it wasn’t Dolan, it was the front office”

21 comments
  1. gil: “Dolan gets all the blame because everything sucks, but he actually cares? ”

    Kmart: “Yeah!”

    kmart: “There were people in place for a long time in the org that were handicapping Dolan ”

    Bonus: “yo they gotta get rid of Randolph” 🙄

    kinda shifting my feelings of Dolan during those years

  2. I was surprised to see Kmart say that the Knicks were the first team he went to that actually took care of their players. He said Dolan doesn’t care about spending money on his players and staff

  3. Very cynical take: Is Kmart – just maybe – kissing up a bit to somehow get into Dolan’s good graces, maybe to be seen at Knicks games, boost his profile a bit, etc. now that they’re good? (Bracing myself for the downvotes)

  4. As time goes on it seems more and more like Mills was the problem. Granted he was an extension of Dolan, but it just sounds like he was clueless. I think at the end of the day, these billionaire owners are so removed from the normal world that I’m sure the players appreciate getting paid but somewhat resent to poor job the front office did while most of them were there.

  5. yeah, and dolan hired that front office and gave them free reign. kind of why leon is doing so well, free reign from dolan. he just picked the wrong guys and stuck by them for too long. dolans a shit person (from accounts online) but honestly a decent owner, picks the FO guys and sticks out of business. finally seeing it pay off with a good front office

  6. Gilbert’s show is always spewing some hot takes for clicks so I definitely would take this with a grain of salt. 

    Dolan has gotten much better over the years but multiple sources over the decades since he took over from his father have said or alluded to him being difficult or undermining them. 

    But again he’s gotten way better over the last few years with his dealings with the Knicks and Rangers

  7. Dolan gets dragged from fans primarily because 1) he brought Isiah Thomas into the fold and that fucked the team for a solid decade, badly; 2) he comes off as a douchebag and antagonistic nepo-baby billionaire.

    By all accounts though I haven’t really heard much about players hating on him.

  8. But this goes against the narrative that Knicks won’t be good until Dolan sells the team that ESPN tries to sell and many people here regurgitate.

    The fact of the matter is, owners should only be judged by 1 thing – how much they are willing to spend. Dolan has never been cheap BUT he has constantly hired the wrong people up until Leon. He has said some dumb shit but which owner hasn’t? He just needs to keep spending money and staying the fuck out of Leon’s way now that he’s actually got someone competent in the position.

    Mark Cuban is like a media darling and has positive relations with the media. The people in the position of power for the Mavs were caught sexually harrassing and creating a corrosive workplace environment. The Mavs hire a woman president and the whole thing is like forgotten about lol. Imagine if that shit happened to the Knicks….

    To me, this is the same stuff as “Thibs runs players to the ground”. Once you get caught with some ESPN narrative, it stays with you forever and all it takes is 1 loudmouth idiot to say it on TV and it’ll catch fire.

    To me, Dolan is like a mid owner. Not the best but not the worst but tv personalities will make it look like we have Satan as our owner.

  9. Dolan isn’t free from blame. He hired the people making terrible basketball decisions. Isiah Thomas set us back a decade alone. Dolan is gonna spend the money, but when it’s being spent on Jerome James and Eddy Curry, the franchise is in trouble.

  10. Most important part of being a CEO is hiring the right leaders. Took Jimmy a while to get there, but it hasn’t been for lack of effort

  11. It all started with Scott Layden, the dude did alright at the start, extending Sprewell and acquiring Kurt Thomas, but that Ewing trade right after has been a curse on this organization I tell you.

  12. Dolan’s biggest issue was never his treatment of players and staff, it’s always been the terrible people he trusts and his behavior to rude fans. His never ending trust of Steve Mills and, by extension, Isiah Thomas, crushed this team for 2 decades. Thank god he found someone he could trust in Leon who is extremely competent at their job.

  13. Who do you think hired all these ridiculously clueless FOs and WHY did he hire them? The Knicks’ ONE major competitive advantage is that they make more money than anyone and can pay their coaches and FOs as much as they want without a cap, yet WHO does Dolan hire? Kissasses and lickspittles, that’s who. Dolan could have hired the best GM in the NBA but instead he hires his buddies over and over and over again. Isaiah had zero previous FO success and had literally just run the CBA OUT OF BUSINESS. He had absolutely no business running an NBA franchise, missed the playoffs every years, traded away all the Knicks picks AND ran a ridiculously unprofessional FO so much so that they lost a gigantic, high profile sexual harassment case yet Dolan hires him back EVERY year for five years. Steve Mills literally failed his way up the corporate ladder. It was just blind luck that he happened to be friends with Leon and had already hired everyone else he knew.

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