About James Dolan
James Dolan, executive chairman and CEO of Madison Square Garden Sports, spoke at several public events following the New York Knicks' 2026 NBA championship, which ended a 53-year title drought. At a championship parade at City Hall, Dolan thanked fans for their patience, saying "you all don't look older than 53 years" and that some fans "weren't born yet" when the team last won. He stated the team would "keep working to bring you even better basketball." During a subsequent radio interview, Dolan said he had not previously addressed the team before the playoffs, and that he told players the season required "10 weeks" of focus and "sacrifice" to achieve a championship.
In other media appearances, Dolan discussed the team's culture change, saying he sought "the best collector of talent" rather than focusing on a specific strategy. He responded to a question about selling the team by stating "I don't think we're going to sell the team" and that he was focused on "repeating." Dolan also criticized the mayor's office over restrictions around Madison Square Garden, saying their decisions "makes absolutely no sense at all" and that he believed New Yorkers could handle the event.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from James Dolan's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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James Dolan0:00
I believe that this team can go all the way. And in my 30 years of doing this, I've never felt closer to achieving that goal than right now. I don't know if you understand what it would mean for you to win a championship this year, to win the NBA championship. It would be life changing for all of you. It will stick with you the rest of your lives. And if you don't win, you'll be thinking about it the rest of your lives. Why I'm here is because we have 10 weeks. 10 weeks in your life to achieve something that will stay with you the rest of your life, and the rest of my life. But you're gonna have to give it your all. You're gonna have to give more now than you've ever ever given before to this team and to your careers. And the big word is sacrifice. You're going to have to sacrifice if you want to achieve this. You have to have a discussion with yourself about what these next 10 weeks are because it's only 10 weeks. It's not a long time. But if you can now focus yourselves, sacrifice everything around you for these next 10 weeks to win that championship, I believe you can do it. I've seen you do it this season and you've seen yourselves do it. You know you can do it. I believe you know you can do it. But will you do it for the next 10 weeks? This has just got to be all about us and about how we play. It's not who we play, it's how we play because I believe this team can beat anybody in the NBA. We've already shown that we can. So, it's not who we play, it's how we play. So, when you go home and you talk to your brides and your significant others, I do want you to tell them one thing that I said. When we win the championship, right, we will get rings. And when we get rings, so will they. I will buy a ring for each one of your significant others because their contribution is going to be very important to this team win. And you know if you don't have a significant other, most of you do. Find someone that is sharing this journey with you for the next 10 weeks and make that person come with you guys and we'll give that person a ring. I believe in you guys. I believe in this whole group. This is not just a player thing. This is an entire organization thing. We've been working at this for years to get ourselves to this point. And now 10 weeks. Can you do it? Can you focus for 10 weeks? If you do that at the end of 10 weeks, we're walking out of here with rings, right? And we're walking out of here with a moniker on ourselves that will never ever go away. Me too.
