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So why did he pick New York after negotiating a buyout from the Jazz? “The arena [MSG], honestly,” Clarkson said. “Feeling the energy from the fans. Knowing they’re going to let you have it if you’re playing like s–t. But when you’re playing great, it’s all love. At the end of the day, I just want to feel the energy. Get to play with y’all [Brunson and Hart].
Carmelo Anthony on his playing days with the Knicks: 'I understood the people'
No. 7 still garners a raucous reception every time he is announced to the home crowd on the scoreboard at Madison Square Garden. “Wanting to be in New York and wanting to accept and take on that challenge, I understood the assignment, and I understood what I was up against,” said Anthony, who set the Knicks’ franchise record with 62 points in one game in 2014. “I understood the people, as far as how they hold you, how they look at you and how they receive you. “Win, lose or draw … we’re talking about the Mecca of basketball. Our city, so nice they named it twice. So for me to come and represent that, and do it with such grace and such respect and take whatever comes with that, I was willing to do that.”
European fans, he admits, are still a breed apart — but Madison Square Garden is as close as the NBA gets. "I would say European fans are a little bit different. We are in one of the gyms (OAKA) where the fans go crazy. So, Europe is a little bit different, but New York definitely have a tough crowd," he pointed out.
The vast majority of the names on MSG's banned list belong to people like Justin Brandel: lawyers who are employed at a firm engaged in active litigation against MSG Entertainment's properties, which also includes the Beacon Theatre and Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, the Chicago Theatre, and the recently opened Sphere in Las Vegas. The list has drawn little media coverage outside of New York. But within the city's legal community, it has become something of a local legend -- the vengeful billionaire who deploys the most modern security technologies available, including facial recognition, to facilitate one of the oldest of human pursuits: settling scores.
Several of the lawyers I spoke with dismissed MSG's stated reasons for the ban and suggested a more Machiavellian purpose. "It's basically designed to chill litigation against MSG -- to scare lawyers away from taking any case against Madison Square Garden or any of their entities," DePaola says. "And we think it sets a really bad precedent." That was one of the arguments that DePaola's firm made against it in court. A judge initially lifted the ban, but an appellate court reversed the decision. One attorney told me about a lawyer at another firm who wanted to join her lawsuit against the Garden, contesting its use of facial-recognition technology, but his partners made him withdraw from the case -- not because they feared Dolan's wrath, though. They just didn't want to give up their Rangers tickets. None of the lawyers I spoke with flinched at suing Dolan. If anything, the ban emboldened them.
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Rod Boone: Preseason scheduling: #Hornets will travel to New York for a matchup with Knicks on Oct. 17 at Madison Square Garden.
For Yabusele, who previously played for the Boston Celtics before returning to Europe with ASVEL and Real Madrid, the move to Madison Square Garden carries more than just basketball significance. “When you look at New York, you can already see how much the franchise has grown in recent years. They’re conference finalists, the team project is clear and very exciting to me. It’s a very good team that plays well together and is playing for a title! That goal was important to me — I want to play for something. Beyond that, New York is a historic team. Playing at Madison Square Garden is every NBA player’s dream — including mine! It’s a special place, and I’m very happy to be there!”
The sale of the Lakers at a record $10 billion valuation has at least one activist investor wondering whether the Knicks could go for more. Boyar Value Group believes the Knicks are leaving billions of dollars in value on the table by being part of Madison Square Garden Sports Corporation, a publicly traded entity that also owns the Rangers. Boyar Value, a shareholder in MSG Sports, urged James Dolan in a Tuesday statement to consider splitting up the company or even selling the Knicks outright.
The statement notes that while Forbes estimates the Knicks’ value at $7.5 billion and the Rangers’ value at $3.5 billion, MSG Sports trades at an enterprise value of $5 billion. As of Thursday morning, MSG Sports’s enterprise value was actually at more than $6 billion, perhaps due to a stock bump that can in part be attributed to enthusiasm about the teams’ value after the Lakers deal. “The Lakers sale highlights how cheap MSG Sports is relative to the value of its assets,” Jonathan Boyar, president of Boyar Value, tells Front Office Sports. “It’s a clear [comparison]. Both don’t own the arena, both are marquee assets with rich histories in major media markets.”
In an open letter published days before the press release, Boyar emphasized that a spin-off shouldn’t be unfamiliar to Dolan and the MSG Sports board, which includes six other Dolan family members. MSG Sports itself was created through a 2020 spin-off, and Sphere Entertainment—owner of the Las Vegas venue—was spun out from MSG Entertainment in 2023. Boyar says Dolan “has a fiduciary duty to shareholders and he should start acting that way,” although he admits he gives Dolan credit that “the right move thus far has been not to sell the team. Look how much it appreciated in value.”
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Jake Fischer: There's a ton of skepticism around the league that Michael Malone—with a similar personality and coaching style to Tom Thibodeau—is going to ultimately be the man on New York's sideline at the end of the day. I'd say there's also plenty of skepticism that Mike Budenholzer would be that man as well. So I think we're going to hear names that are potentially lower down on the totem pole in terms of proven veteran playoff success. I think we're going to be hearing names like Mike Brown, the former head coach in Sacramento—his name's already been linked to the job. Taylor Jenkins, the former Grizzlies head coach, might be the most respected coach available on the market right now. There are a ton of questions about whether or not New York will go back to their own well and try to bring Cavs assistant Johnny Bryant back to Madison Square Garden. That's not something I've been able to confirm yet, but it's definitely something people are wondering about, as he was a finalist for the head coaching job in Phoenix and, of course, was part of the Eastern Conference–leading Cleveland Cavaliers coaching staff this season.
Nellie's response when I pointed out to him that the Knicks have a head coaching vacancy and asked if he has any interest in returning to Madison Square Garden: "Well, I'll tell you what, I enjoyed New York more than people think. I mean, I just loved it there when I was there, but I wasn't there very long. I got sideways with [Patrick] Ewing because there was a time when Shaquille [O'Neal] was being talked about to wind up with the Lakers. I had coached Shaq on the USA team [at the 1994 World Championships] and I found out that he might also come to New York — those were the two areas he was looking at. If the L.A. thing didn't work out, he liked the idea of being in New York — in the big city. I mentioned that in a private meeting with the owner and with the GM. And it wasn't long before it got back to Ewing. It pretty much ended our relationship when he found out about it."
Surely you haven't forgotten the highly fortuitous l-o-n-g two that Haliburton drained to force overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden … his stepback hoist at the regulation buzzer that bounced straight up into the air off the back of the rim before dropping straight back through. It was the NBA's modern-day homage to Don Nelson. "I thought for sure the announcers would say something about it because it was very similar," Nelson told me the other day, reflecting on the decisive Game 7 shot he sank in the 1969 NBA Finals. "But they didn't mention it. It was kind of funny to me because that's the first thing I thought about. "His shot was a lot longer and it went way higher than mine though," Nelson added with a laugh.
Payton Pritchard: We’re going to compete for a championship, there’s only one standard
“This is the Boston Celtics,” Payton Pritchard explained to HoopsHype following Boston’s season-ending loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. “We’re going to compete for a championship. There’s only one standard. That’s the standard we’ll always live by.”
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