James Dolan, the owner of two major New York-based sports franchises, the Knicks and the Rangers, has been positive for COVID-19. This is the news which pretty much shook the world of US sports. Dolan is the first owner of one major sports team, and one of the most recognizable faces in the country.
The New York Knicks’ public relationships department issued a statement in which they confirm the news, saying that the 64-year old feels well at the moment, and has no significant symptoms characteristic for the virus.
“The Madison Square Garden Company Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Dolan has tested positive for Coronavirus. He has been in self-isolation and is experiencing little to no symptoms. He continues to oversee business operations,” wrote in an announcement revealed on the Knicks’ PR Twitter account.
After seeing the players being infected by the virus, most notably, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, unfortunately, the disease hit other parts of the NBA franchises. Even though the league is not having any activities at the moment, Dolan’s situation was caused by an epidemic in the state of New York, which is currently the place marked as the red zone for virus presence. The situation is worsening from day to day, and at the moment, more than 52 thousand people are infected with Coronavirus. Some 7,300 are in hospitals and 1,800 in intensive care.
Even before this pandemic, things weren’t pleasant for Dolan and his Knicks. The franchise is one of the worst in the league, without any indication that such a situation might change. The goals before the start of the campaign were high, and the announcements of the Knicks’ executives happened to be pretty bold, although there was no logical reason for such claims.
The frustration among the fans was reaching its peak before the hiatus. Apparently, Dolan, too, was battling with the same feeling. He had two outbursts this year, which saw him entering public disputes with unhappy fans.
One was with the Academy Award winner, Spike Lee, who publicly stated that he won’t be coming to Knicks’ games until the end of the season, and that he is heavily disappointed with Dolan’s behavior. He would claim that the Knicks’ owner is harassing him in different ways because of his constant criticism. Of course, that only increased already considerable pressure on Dolan.
As we already said, the Knicks had massive ambitions for the past offseason. There were numerous talks about landing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to Madison and also about trying to trade up at the NBA Draft for Zion Williamson. Eventually, nothing happened, and the best deal the organization managed to work out was signing Julius Randle on a three-year $63 million contract. All this was one of the reasons why NYK supporters became angry at him.
The No.3 pick from this year’s draft RJ Barrett, had a huge burden on his backs, with the entire public expecting from him to lift the Knicks’ game to another level. Unfortunately, the Canadian youngster didn’t have the proper support for doing the same, and he blended in the overall mediocrity of the entire franchise.
Dolan changed the head coach in the meantime, firing Dave Fizdale and appointing Mike Miller on his spot. Still, that didn’t bring any noticeable changes whatsoever.
