Dolan talks Knicks, Woodson, Grunwald

Weissenberg

Grid or Riot
NY Post said:
You see him plenty. He is an active owner, he attends games, he lives and dies with his teams the way you do and because he?s the man who signs the checks, his opinions occasionally become mandates, and sometimes controversies. You know James Dolan is in the arena, in both the literal and the literary sense.

You rarely hear him. On occasion, he offers brief remarks at press conferences. You can hear him sing, if you catch his band at a club. But it had been seven years since he sat down for an on-the-record interview about the Knicks and Rangers. He agreed to meet with The Post this week, inside a Madison Level suite at the Garden.


MV: I?m sure you heard the chants that have already started to fire Mike Woodson, which comes with the territory, naturally ?

JD: Yeah ?
MV: How patient will you be with him? He understood when he took the job the expectations that go with it. Will you give him a long rope?
JD: I have a lot of confidence in Woodson, and one thing I can say about Mike is he has the respect of all the players. They all respect him. And he treats them fairly and relatively equally, and that?s part of where the respect emanates from. And those are hard things to get from a coach. When a coach loses a team ? that?s when a coach is kind of done.
Mostly, I think it does not pay to be impatient, because you destabilize your team. It?s not like the players don?t want to win, it?s not like the owner doesn?t want to win; everybody wants to win, so it?s a question of: Can you get there? With Mike, I think he can get us there. Mostly, I think Carmelo [Anthony] can get us there, and the other players can get us there, they?re going to have to jell and I think Mike can do a lot to get that to happen. Because he has their respect.

MV: The Knicks started 18-5 last year and it didn?t end the way you wanted it to; at this point I assume you?d flip that script?
JD: You know what? I wouldn?t take last year?s team for this year?s team, because this year?s team is more designed to be a playoff team, whereas last year?s team was 18-5 but look who was playing: we had Rasheed Wallace who was doing everything for us, right? And we just started losing player after player ? by the time we got to the playoffs that 18-5 team wasn?t the team that was playing in the playoffs. If they were I think we would?ve beaten Indiana.
MV: So this bad start ?
JD: It?s going right according to plan (laughs) ?


MV: A few days before training camp you changed general managers; why do that so close to the start of camp? Did something change from the start of summer to the end?

JD: I didn?t time it, per se, like that. I?m surprised other folks were surprised about this. The general manager?s work doesn?t really occur at that time of year. If you?re going to change general managers that?s probably the right time to do it. The next available trade date is Dec. 15. You?ve just finished free agency and all that. It?s a lull period. The timing didn?t really have much to do with that. It was more about an initiative I have going on with both teams that I hired McKinsey & Company [a Manhattan-based global management consulting firm] for, because as I?ve gotten to look at both our organizations, it?s become apparent that we really need to reprocess both teams. We were using a lot of ? not old, but ?classic? methods and now with technology, and what?s available to a team to help improve, I didn?t think we were taking advantage of those things.
MV: So in evaluating these business solutions you came to the conclusion Glen Grunwald was lacking and Steve Mills a better fit?
JD: I hired McKinsey in the summer, and Glen is more of a ?classic? GM, and he just wasn?t the guy to lead this initiative for the team, and it had to be someone in that position who could do it because I wasn?t going to do it. It needed someone behind it, someone who understood it, and that just wasn?t Glen?s forte. I think he was a good general manager, he?s got a great eye for talent, he knows basketball well, but the job description changed.


MV: If you could take a mulligan on the $100 million Amar?e cont
ract?
JD: Nope.
MV: Because the first year was that important?
JD: We would not be where we are today without Amar?e. That summer, the summer of ?The Decision,? there were a whole bunch of free agents, and the guys put their thing together in Miami, and Amar?e agreed to come to the Knicks, gave us a launch pad by which we could convince the other guys like Tyson [Chandler] to come, and ultimately Carmelo to come play with us. Do I think Carmelo would have come if we didn?t have Amar?e? No, I don?t think he would?ve. These free agents, when you get to this level of player ? the Carmelos, the LeBrons, the Durants ? the first thing they want before the money or anything else is to be on a winning team. They?ve got to believe they have a shot.
MV: So does it sadden you to watch him in a diminished state?
JD: I still have hope. You cannot ask for a guy to be more dedicated, more disciplined, than Amar?e. He does his rehab, he does his workouts, he does everything, he?s on it every day, and that?s worth a lot, too. If there?s justice in this world, his knee will heal up to the point where he can play more minutes and make the contribution he wants to make.

http://nypost.com/2013/11/22/james-dolan-dishes-on-isiah-his-garden-teams/

I've to admit, this is pretty much the first time I read a Dolan's interview... and well, he sounds confident, like he knows what he's doing. And to his credit, right now he's more feet to the ground than most posters on this board who've been in panic mode since the second game of the season. :lol:
 

uber

Benchwarmer
And to his credit, right now he's more feet to the ground than most posters on this board who've been in panic mode since the second game of the season. :lol:

Well that's the beauty of being a Knicks Fan :) When you're a fan of a self-destructing franchise like the Knicks, panic sooner or later becomes your best friend regarding everything this franchise does.

He can sound as confident or as much with his feet to the ground as he wants but we still know that he has no idea what he is talking.
 

LeFlume

All Star
James Dolan is exactly like Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys. A fan owner that does more harm than good.
 

groundpilot

Benchwarmer
Well, after reading this interview, i am now convinced that we wil not only never win championship, but will not even be a real contender untill Dolan is gone.
 

Weissenberg

Grid or Riot
I think you're underrating Dolan, after all he's good at what he's doing which is making money. What we call vriendjespolitiek made him lose millions of dollars during the Isaiah era and right now good mate or not, if you're losing Dolan's money you're out, which is basically what happened to Walsh and Grunwald. My point is, you don't hire one of the best known managament firms worldwide if your GM has a reasonable business approach.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Well, after reading this interview, i am now convinced that we wil not only never win championship, but will not even be a real contender untill Dolan is gone.
I agree, nothing in that interview impressed me. No mulligan on Amare, the guy is an idiot. We could have signed TC and Melo without Amare, TC is in NY for the money that nobody offered him and Melo has been wanting to come to NY before we signed Amare.
 

Weissenberg

Grid or Riot
And that's why Dolan is the owner and not any of you guys. Amare's still a Knick, and as the owner, you wanna get the best out him while you're still paying him $20M/year. What kind of effect do you think it'd have on Amare (and other players) if you, as the team owner, publicly admitted that you regret offering him a max contract? Dolan tried to answer the questions in a very diplomatic way, because Amare's still on the team, because Grunwald still works for the Knicks and is an old buddy of Woodson and because Isaiah is Dolan's long time friend. I'm pretty sure that Dolan knows that Amare is a lost cause, that Grunwald lost him millions of $$$ and that Isaiah should never ever be anywhere close the GM office, but it's not what you say in fron of the press.
 

groundpilot

Benchwarmer
And that's why Dolan is the owner and not any of you guys. Amare's still a Knick, and as the owner, you wanna get the best out him while you're still paying him $20M/year. What kind of effect do you think it'd have on Amare (and other players) if you, as the team owner, publicly admitted that you regret offering him a max contract? Dolan tried to answer the questions in a very diplomatic way, because Amare's still on the team, because Grunwald still works for the Knicks and is an old buddy of Woodson and because Isaiah is Dolan's long time friend. I'm pretty sure that Dolan knows that Amare is a lost cause, that Grunwald lost him millions of $$$ and that Isaiah should never ever be anywhere close the GM office, but it's not what you say in fron of the press.

If he knows that Amare is a lost cause, then he should say it. Everybody knows that Amare is a highest paid chearleader in the world at this point, has been for a second year now. If he doesnt want to admit that he made a mistake when he signed him in the first place, i would understand, but for him to say whatever he is saying, makes him look like a liar or a complete retard which i think he is.
 

Broadway

All Star
Well, after reading this interview, i am now convinced that we wil not only never win championship, but will not even be a real contender untill Dolan is gone.

The Grunwald and Amar'e snippits in this piece are utterly ridiculous...What a STUPIDIOT!!!
 

Kiyaman

Legend
I have a lot of confidence in Woodson, and one thing I can say about Mike is he has the respect of all the players. They all respect him. And he treats them fairly and relatively equally, and that?s part of where the respect emanates from. And those are hard things to get from a coach. When a coach loses a team ? that?s when a coach is kind of done.
Mostly, I think it does not pay to be impatient, because you destabilize your team. It?s not like the players don?t want to win, it?s not like the owner doesn?t want to win; everybody wants to win, so it?s a question of: Can you get there? With Mike, I think he can get us there. Mostly, I think Carmelo [Anthony] can get us there, and the other players can get us there, they?re going to have to jell and I think Mike can do a lot to get that to happen. Because he has their respect.


Man ol man, it's been a long time since Dolan had an interview on the Knicks .. WTF is going on!
Somethin aint right .. Dolan was on point :thumbsup: Dolan called it like it is .........
Do Woody have the players respect? Yeah right, 3/8th worth of respect.

Did Dolan send a indirect message to Woody in above comment, about gettin respect by treatin players equally.
Woody's offense/defense plan gets no respect from the players.
Woody's substitution gets no respect from the players.
Woody giving veterans spot-minutes of playingtime loss big respect.


I didn?t time it, per se, like that. I?m surprised other folks were surprised about this. The general manager?s work doesn?t really occur at that time of year. If you?re going to change general managers that?s probably the right time to do it. The next available trade date is Dec. 15. You?ve just finished free agency and all that. It?s a lull period. The timing didn?t really have much to do with that.

I dont recall any team in the history of the NBA changing GM during training-camp.
Grunwald had to do something that pissed Dolan off bigtime.
I wonder will Dolan let interim GM Mills make any trades :crossfingers: we are desert thirsty for draft picks.

I still have hope. You cannot ask for a guy to be more dedicated, more disciplined, than Amar?e. He does his rehab, he does his workouts, he does everything, he?s on it every day, and that?s worth a lot, too. If there?s justice in this world, his knee will heal up to the point where he can play more minutes and make the contribution he wants to make.

It's not hard to be optimistic bout Amare being Amare receiving 30 minutes per game (21-7), it just wont be as a Knicks. I dont see Woody & Melo on the same-page with Amare, and visa-versa
 

tiger0330

Legend
Dolan was also asked about rehiring Isiah Thomas and he flat ruled it out. Said Isiah and him are friends but Zeke will never work in NY again. So don't worry about Zeke replacing Woody if he's fired.
 
Top