Money is an Object
If you know James Dolan, you know that he oozes with money. He's the kind of rich that can lose $100 million in one day and still be considered a billionaire. He's the kind of rich that has money in so many different places that he's even unsure of where it all is. James Dolan, as most if not every NBA fan knows, is the controversial owner of the New York Knicks (as well as the New York Rangers, WNBA Liberty and AHL Connecticut Whale). As the CEO of Cablevision, one of the largest cable, internet and phone providers in the USA and Executive Chairman of Madison Square Garden, the home of the New York Knicks, Dolan clearly has an incredible amount of sway in a various number of markets. Yet, his tenure as owner of the Knicks has been remarkably controversial. Since losing to the Spurs in the NBA Finals in 1999, the Knicks have had just one winning season and only one playoff win. They also overloaded themselves with a number of unpopular contracts including a $100 million max deal for an aging Allan Houston back in 2001 (he would fail to complete the contract due to injury), a 5 year $50 million deal for then coach Larry Brown who would last just one season after a 23-59 record and earn himself an $18 million buyout and most notoriously, giving enemy #1 Isiah Thomas a much undesired multiyear deal as dual general manager and head coach. I won't go into the grisly details but suffice to say it took years for fans to get over the shortcomings of Thomas and his questionable coaching and managerial decisions. Never mind that Thomas was likely only on staff because of his close ties with Dolan. Thomas' tenure as GM left the Knicks with such a bloated team salary that it took subsequent GM Donnie Walsh nearly three years just for the Knicks to be able to afford max level contracts and turn the team around. Nevertheless, during those tumultuous years when Thomas was the helm, Dolan appeared to approve of all his free agent signings and trades despite the impact of the fan base. If not for the remarkably outspoken New York fan base, we'd likely still see Thomas working in some official capacity with the team (he probably still secretly is). But why would any owner in their right mind allow their GM to make such boneheaded moves and inflate the team's salary by such an incredible amount? Beside the fact that Dolan loves Thomas for some unspecified reason, he also does not mind spending the money. When a NBA team goes over the specified salary cap, as the Knicks were doing for many years under Thomas, the owner is required to pay a luxury tax for every dollar over the hard tax line. So for example, if the Knicks salary was at $95 Million as it was in Thomas' last year, Dolan would be required to pay on the dollar for every amount over the specified tax line which changes according to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Let's just say that for Dolan and the Knicks, that added up to a lot of money that he was "forced" to pay for the penalty of going over the tax amount. But now Thomas is gone (as is Walsh) and we were to believe that Dolan had come to his senses. Boy, were we wrong.
This past season was one of the most exciting in recent Knicks memory. Aside from it being Carmelo Anthony's first full season (despite injury) and the team winning it's first playoff game in over a decade, it also gave rise to the greatest phenomenon the NBA has seen in this century. That phenomenon was Jeremy Lin. Lin, a tossed around player who could never find solid ground as a roster mainstay on any previous NBA team he was a part of, was finally given a chance under then coach Mike D'Antoni with the frequent struggles of Toney Douglas. Playing under an non-guaranteed contract and simply trying to earn his way onto the team, Lin put the Knicks on a wild ride of remarkable success and the now branded "Linsanity." In the 35 games that Lin played and 25 that he started, he averaged 14.6 points, 6.2 assists, 3 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. He also set the record for most points scored over his first five career starts with 131, breaking the previous mark set by future Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal. He also became one of 15 players since 1985 to average 20 points and 7 assists per game in six straight games, including his namesake among such greats as Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and LeBron James. But most importantly, he turned the Knicks season around at a time when the fanbase began to doubt the abilities of the team to survive without a solid point guard. Lin would be unable to complete the season due to a leg injury but the impact he made on the team, the city and the league was unprecedented. Lin was the first Asian or Taiwanese-American to ever make such an impact on the game. Merchandise sales spiked to record levels. His jersey became a top seller almost instantly and most importantly, James Dolan's MSG stock grew to record levels in a very short time. In a word, the impact of Lin was unmistakable. He had changed the scope of how teams scout their developmental players and challenged the notion that Asian-Americans couldn't cut it in the league. The New York Times even doted him the most important player of the decade despite his short stint as a player. He made the cover of Sports Illustrated not once, but two consecutive times. All this with an non-guaranteed contract and the weight of world on his shoulders.
Of course, life isn't always so peachy. Especially for Knick fans. The Knicks would hit a roadblock when tension between Anthony and D'Antoni led to his resignation from the team and the promotion of Woodson as head coach. While D'Antoni was remarkably high on Lin's ability as a starter on his team, Woodson seemed less confident. Despite the fact that the Knicks would finish out the season 18-6 under Woodson, Lin missed a number of those games, including the playoffs, recovering from his leg injury. Given that the Knicks still shined under Woodson (mostly due to Carmelo's resurgence as a star player), it began to seem unlikely that Woodson really valued Lin as the future of his team. While Lin fit well into D'Antoni's speedball offense, Woodson's game plan of more stagnant ball movement seemed less suited for Lin's style of play. With the season over and the Knicks looking to make as much of a splash in free agency as they could despite their salary cap restrictions, Woodson and even GM Glen Grunwald frequently referred to Lin as the PG for the upcoming season. Lin, as an restricted free agent, was free to take offer sheets from any interested teams. The Knicks, due to their salary restrictions were only able to offer Lin up to around 24 million over 4 years. However, they were able to match any offer sheet to Lin due to his victory in the Early Bird Rights case. What this essentially meant was that the Knicks could let the market dictate Lin's next contract and they would be able to match any amount without it affecting the salary cap. The "rub" however was that it would put the Knicks well over the tax limit and cost Dolan a substantial amount of money in 2014-2015 when the poison pill of Lin's 3 year $25 million contract offered by GM Daryl Morey and the Rockets kicked in. With a $15 million salary in the third year, the Knicks would be forced to pay over $35 million in tax dollars. Clearly, that amount would give any person a clear pause. But as we'd seen with the tax dollars handed out in the past by Dolan, the rational Knick fan would assume that this contract would be no problem and the tax penalty would be an afterthought. Also, given sources that claimed the Knicks would match "up to a billion dollars" on Lin and head coach Mike Woodson going so far as to say that Lin would "absolutely be the Knicks starting point guard", the matching of Lin's deal from the Rockets seemed to be a sure bet. However, the original offer sheet was a 4 year $28 million offer sheet that did not put the Knicks at such financial instability later on in the contract. Just last week, Lin went back to the Rockets and they chose (within their rights of course) to alter the deal to a 3 year $25 million offer sheet to try and persuade the Knicks not to match. Well, the alteration of the offer sheet bothered Dolan so much to the point that despite his excess of money, he found it offensive that Lin could go back and demand such an amount of money. In essence, one of the richest men in New York City was explicitly saying that he could not afford such a contract. The same guy who could afford to drop $100 million in a New York minute was on the record for claiming inability to afford a $25 million contract. Of course that did not include the estimated $35 million tax hit in 3 years time. Nevertheless, for such a free spending billionaire, the decision was markedly perplexing.
For Knick fans especially, considering that this was the same guy who had allowed the team salary to balloon to $117 million just in 2006, the decision did not make much sense. Lin is perhaps the most marketable player the Knicks have ever gotten their hands on. The merchandise sales alone would likely have been able to cover the tax penalty Dolan would have faced. That's not even including the spike in media dollars, marketing dollars and ticket sales. Lin would have grown the MSG stock to unspeakable numbers. Just look at the stock now with him off the team (and it's been less than 24 hours). Dolan had led fans to believe that the Knicks were headed in the right path towards finally reaching the stardom and success we had been promised of when Amar'e Stoudemire joined the team as its first big name free agent in the post Isiah Thomas era. Instead, we the fans are left shaking our heads and wondering just how this turn of events came to be. Despite all the assurances from the Knicks staff that we had finally found the last crucial piece towards contending for an NBA title and challenging the Heat and Bulls, we are instead left wondering what could have been and what will be with an overaged Jason Kidd and out of shape Raymond Felton at the helm. There are always positives and negatives to every decision a team makes regarding a player. In a basketball sense, Lin had shown, despite his short stint, that he would be able to handle the full time duties as the starting PG. Even though his workmanship with Anthony had been suspect, it was nothing that couldn't have been mended and fixed over time. In a financial sense, it was an incredible amount to spend for a player who had only given the league just a short sample of his basketball abilities. With no guarantee that he would be able to emulate those types of statistics again, it was obviously a risk to commit so much money to something that wasn't a sure thing. Consider Jerome James and Jalen Rose for size. Maybe Dolan did not want to suffer from those same dreadful mistakes he had made just a little time ago. But for us the fans that could never be a justifiable reason. As witness to Lin's breakout game against the Nets back in February, I had never seen the Garden so alive and so encapsulated by such an unknown figure. The instant fame and notoriety that Lin achieved was unprecedented and truly historic. And for the first time in quite awhile, the Knicks were in the driver's seat in determining a potential star's future. For a man who frequently gave off the notion that money was no object, Dolan quickly reversed that idea by declining to match the Rockets' offer. And by declining to match an offer that the fans truly believed was no object to his massive fortune, he may have just cost himself the greatest casino chip in sports history. While I will still support the team because of my undying support for the Knicks, the same cannot be said for the millions of fans who hung on to every single Lin movement. If this were a poker table, it's the equivalent of James Dolan folding a royal flush with all his money on the table. All I have left to say is well played Mr. Dolan, well played.
This past season was one of the most exciting in recent Knicks memory. Aside from it being Carmelo Anthony's first full season (despite injury) and the team winning it's first playoff game in over a decade, it also gave rise to the greatest phenomenon the NBA has seen in this century. That phenomenon was Jeremy Lin. Lin, a tossed around player who could never find solid ground as a roster mainstay on any previous NBA team he was a part of, was finally given a chance under then coach Mike D'Antoni with the frequent struggles of Toney Douglas. Playing under an non-guaranteed contract and simply trying to earn his way onto the team, Lin put the Knicks on a wild ride of remarkable success and the now branded "Linsanity." In the 35 games that Lin played and 25 that he started, he averaged 14.6 points, 6.2 assists, 3 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. He also set the record for most points scored over his first five career starts with 131, breaking the previous mark set by future Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal. He also became one of 15 players since 1985 to average 20 points and 7 assists per game in six straight games, including his namesake among such greats as Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and LeBron James. But most importantly, he turned the Knicks season around at a time when the fanbase began to doubt the abilities of the team to survive without a solid point guard. Lin would be unable to complete the season due to a leg injury but the impact he made on the team, the city and the league was unprecedented. Lin was the first Asian or Taiwanese-American to ever make such an impact on the game. Merchandise sales spiked to record levels. His jersey became a top seller almost instantly and most importantly, James Dolan's MSG stock grew to record levels in a very short time. In a word, the impact of Lin was unmistakable. He had changed the scope of how teams scout their developmental players and challenged the notion that Asian-Americans couldn't cut it in the league. The New York Times even doted him the most important player of the decade despite his short stint as a player. He made the cover of Sports Illustrated not once, but two consecutive times. All this with an non-guaranteed contract and the weight of world on his shoulders.
Of course, life isn't always so peachy. Especially for Knick fans. The Knicks would hit a roadblock when tension between Anthony and D'Antoni led to his resignation from the team and the promotion of Woodson as head coach. While D'Antoni was remarkably high on Lin's ability as a starter on his team, Woodson seemed less confident. Despite the fact that the Knicks would finish out the season 18-6 under Woodson, Lin missed a number of those games, including the playoffs, recovering from his leg injury. Given that the Knicks still shined under Woodson (mostly due to Carmelo's resurgence as a star player), it began to seem unlikely that Woodson really valued Lin as the future of his team. While Lin fit well into D'Antoni's speedball offense, Woodson's game plan of more stagnant ball movement seemed less suited for Lin's style of play. With the season over and the Knicks looking to make as much of a splash in free agency as they could despite their salary cap restrictions, Woodson and even GM Glen Grunwald frequently referred to Lin as the PG for the upcoming season. Lin, as an restricted free agent, was free to take offer sheets from any interested teams. The Knicks, due to their salary restrictions were only able to offer Lin up to around 24 million over 4 years. However, they were able to match any offer sheet to Lin due to his victory in the Early Bird Rights case. What this essentially meant was that the Knicks could let the market dictate Lin's next contract and they would be able to match any amount without it affecting the salary cap. The "rub" however was that it would put the Knicks well over the tax limit and cost Dolan a substantial amount of money in 2014-2015 when the poison pill of Lin's 3 year $25 million contract offered by GM Daryl Morey and the Rockets kicked in. With a $15 million salary in the third year, the Knicks would be forced to pay over $35 million in tax dollars. Clearly, that amount would give any person a clear pause. But as we'd seen with the tax dollars handed out in the past by Dolan, the rational Knick fan would assume that this contract would be no problem and the tax penalty would be an afterthought. Also, given sources that claimed the Knicks would match "up to a billion dollars" on Lin and head coach Mike Woodson going so far as to say that Lin would "absolutely be the Knicks starting point guard", the matching of Lin's deal from the Rockets seemed to be a sure bet. However, the original offer sheet was a 4 year $28 million offer sheet that did not put the Knicks at such financial instability later on in the contract. Just last week, Lin went back to the Rockets and they chose (within their rights of course) to alter the deal to a 3 year $25 million offer sheet to try and persuade the Knicks not to match. Well, the alteration of the offer sheet bothered Dolan so much to the point that despite his excess of money, he found it offensive that Lin could go back and demand such an amount of money. In essence, one of the richest men in New York City was explicitly saying that he could not afford such a contract. The same guy who could afford to drop $100 million in a New York minute was on the record for claiming inability to afford a $25 million contract. Of course that did not include the estimated $35 million tax hit in 3 years time. Nevertheless, for such a free spending billionaire, the decision was markedly perplexing.
For Knick fans especially, considering that this was the same guy who had allowed the team salary to balloon to $117 million just in 2006, the decision did not make much sense. Lin is perhaps the most marketable player the Knicks have ever gotten their hands on. The merchandise sales alone would likely have been able to cover the tax penalty Dolan would have faced. That's not even including the spike in media dollars, marketing dollars and ticket sales. Lin would have grown the MSG stock to unspeakable numbers. Just look at the stock now with him off the team (and it's been less than 24 hours). Dolan had led fans to believe that the Knicks were headed in the right path towards finally reaching the stardom and success we had been promised of when Amar'e Stoudemire joined the team as its first big name free agent in the post Isiah Thomas era. Instead, we the fans are left shaking our heads and wondering just how this turn of events came to be. Despite all the assurances from the Knicks staff that we had finally found the last crucial piece towards contending for an NBA title and challenging the Heat and Bulls, we are instead left wondering what could have been and what will be with an overaged Jason Kidd and out of shape Raymond Felton at the helm. There are always positives and negatives to every decision a team makes regarding a player. In a basketball sense, Lin had shown, despite his short stint, that he would be able to handle the full time duties as the starting PG. Even though his workmanship with Anthony had been suspect, it was nothing that couldn't have been mended and fixed over time. In a financial sense, it was an incredible amount to spend for a player who had only given the league just a short sample of his basketball abilities. With no guarantee that he would be able to emulate those types of statistics again, it was obviously a risk to commit so much money to something that wasn't a sure thing. Consider Jerome James and Jalen Rose for size. Maybe Dolan did not want to suffer from those same dreadful mistakes he had made just a little time ago. But for us the fans that could never be a justifiable reason. As witness to Lin's breakout game against the Nets back in February, I had never seen the Garden so alive and so encapsulated by such an unknown figure. The instant fame and notoriety that Lin achieved was unprecedented and truly historic. And for the first time in quite awhile, the Knicks were in the driver's seat in determining a potential star's future. For a man who frequently gave off the notion that money was no object, Dolan quickly reversed that idea by declining to match the Rockets' offer. And by declining to match an offer that the fans truly believed was no object to his massive fortune, he may have just cost himself the greatest casino chip in sports history. While I will still support the team because of my undying support for the Knicks, the same cannot be said for the millions of fans who hung on to every single Lin movement. If this were a poker table, it's the equivalent of James Dolan folding a royal flush with all his money on the table. All I have left to say is well played Mr. Dolan, well played.
posted by Jared Dubro | 1:04 PM
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