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Ambushed

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NEW YORK – New York Knicks owner James Dolan on Tuesday addressed his Saturday confrontation with a fan, calling it an “ambush,” and revealing that the heckling spectator has been banned from Madison Square Garden.

Embed from Getty Images

Dolan, who was told by the fan to “sell the team,” discussed the incident on “The Michael Kay Show” on 98.7 ESPN New York.

Regarding the confrontation, he said, “It’s pretty easy. It appears that this gentleman and his friends planned to do this. That just before the game they cleared their profiles out. We have video which shows them moving from one side of the arena to the other and pointing to me to set this ambush up and they did. Then as soon as they were done with it, it was immediately sold to TMZ. But look, not for nothing, but I shouldn’t have taken the bait.”

The heckling began in the waning minutes of the Knicks’ 102-94 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Saturday as Dolan was walking toward the tunnel.

A TMZ video shows Dolan hearing the fan and stopping to call him closer.

“You think I should sell the team?” Dolan begins. “You wanna not come to any more games?” then adding that the comment was rude.

Dolan eventually signaled to hold the man for security. According to TMZ, security and police questioned the man before asking him to leave the arena.

On Tuesday, Dolan said he had originally planned to invite the fan back and let him meet the players while trying to show him that his team was moving in the right direction. He said that changed when it “became clear that the whole thing was planned.”

“The ban is only coming from the fact that we now have learned that he planned it,” Dolan said. “They were stalking me. You can’t do that in Madison Square Garden. You are not allowed to stalk the owner and then confront him like that.”

Dolan also said, despite the fact that the Knicks have a league-worst 13-54 record this season, “For the record, I am not selling the team and I am not quitting.”

–Field Level Media

$4M and a Bag of Potatoes

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NEW YORK – The New York Knicks have the NBA’s worst record, but Forbes says the franchise remains the league’s most valuable for the fourth consecutive year at $4 billion.

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The Los Angeles Lakers ($3.7 billion), Golden State Warriors ($3.5 billion), Chicago Bulls ($2.9 billion) and Boston Celtics ($2.8 billion) round out the top five in the annual rankings released Wednesday.

According to Forbes, the average NBA team is worth $1.9 billion, a 13 percent increase from last year.

The Knicks boosted their value by 11 percent since 2018, despite spiraling toward their sixth consecutive season without a playoff berth. Forbes said the franchise is still reaping the rewards of a $1 billion renovation to Madison Square Garden that was completed in 2013.

The Knicks are tied with the New York Yankees as the second-most-valuable U.S. sports franchise behind the Dallas Cowboys, worth an estimated $5 billion.

The Philadelphia 76ers had the NBA’s biggest increase in value for the second straight year, up 40 percent to $1.65 billion.

The Memphis Grizzlies were the least-valuable franchise at $1.2 billion.

–Field Level Media

Spreadin’ the News

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Boston Celtics 113, NY Knicks 99

When: 7:30 PM ET, Friday, February 1, 2019
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York
Attendance: 18,343
Recap for Digital Sports Desk by Field Level Media

NEW YORK – Kyrie Irving capped an eventful day by totaling 23 points, 10 rebounds and six assists as the Boston Celtics recorded an easy 113-99 victory over the New York Knicks, whose home losing streak reached 13 games.

After addressing his impending free agency during the morning shootaround by saying “ask me after July 1,” Irving returned from missing the previous two games with a strained left hip and helped the Celtics win for the eighth time in nine games.

Irving heard cheers in pregame introductions, and some fans chanted “We Want Kyrie” as the New Jersey native shot 9 of 20, recorded his 13th double-double and reached double digits in rebounds for the second time.

Marcus Morris added 18 points as the Celtics shot 46 percent. Al Horford and Gordon Hayward contributed 14 apiece while Jayson Tatum chipped in 13.

The Knicks broke the team record for the longest home losing streak set during their 17-65 2014-15 campaign under coach Derek Fisher and former president Phil Jackson.

New York also dropped its season-high 12th straight game since beating the Lakers on Jan. 4 and dropped to 2-25 in its last 27 games since its last home win on Dec. 1 over the Milwaukee Bucks.

A day after trading Kristaps Porzingis, Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Courtney Lee to Dallas in a move that opened up about $70 million in salary cap space, the Knicks played shorthanded. They acquired Dennis Smith Jr., Wesley Matthews and DeAndre Jordan in the deal, but none of the players were active Friday.

Damyean Dotson scored a season-high 22 points as the Knicks shot 45.3 percent. Rookie Kevin Knox added 21 points for New York, which also was without point guards Emmanuel Mudiay (shoulder) and Frank Ntilikina (groin).

The Celtics built a 72-58 lead on a 10-footer by Horford with 3:21 left and took an 80-73 lead into the fourth. Boston began the fourth with a 14-4 run and took a 94-77 lead on a 3-pointer by Morris with eight minutes left. The Celtics took their first 20-point lead at 104-83 on a fast-break dunk by Jaylen Brown with about six minutes left.

New York hung around by going on a 12-1 run to get within 105-95 on a layup by Dotson with 3:34 left, but Irving hit a 13-footer and Horford converted a tip-in to ice the win.

–Field Level Media

Blockbuster in NY

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NEW YORK – The Dallas Mavericks made injured forward Kristaps Porzingis’ wish come true Thursday by agreeing to acquire the All-Star player from the New York Knicks in a deal involving seven players and two first-round picks.

Porzingis Highlights (House of Highlights/Youtube)

The Knicks will also send Trey Burke, Courtney Lee and Tim Hardaway Jr. to the Mavericks in return for two future first-round picks, Wesley Matthews, Dennis Smith Jr. and DeAndre Jordan. Porzingis — who will be a restricted free agent after this season — has yet to make a decision on his future with Dallas, ESPN reported.

ESPN adds the first-round picks will be an unprotected selection in 2021 and a top-10 protected choice in 2023. As part of the trade during the 2018 draft to acquire Luka Doncic, Dallas owes its protected 2019 first-rounder to the Atlanta Hawks.

According to an earlier ESPN report, Porzingis met with Knicks management Thursday and gave the team the impression he preferred to be traded after Porzingis and his brother/agent, Janis, reportedly attended a meeting with Knicks brass to express concern with the team’s losing and “an uncertainty that a culture is developing that will enable sustainable organizational success.” The Knicks came away from the meeting with plans to discuss trading Porzingis before the Feb. 7 trade deadline, the report added.

Hours later, news of the deal emerged.The Knicks’ record this season is an NBA-worst 10-40, and they have lost 11 in a row, 19 of 20 and 24 of 26.

Porzingis, who has been out almost a year while recovering from a torn left ACL suffered in February 2018, had his name surface in trade rumors for the New Orleans Pelicans’ Anthony Davis, but ESPN reported earlier Thursday that it was unlikely he would be part of a package deal this summer because he would be a restricted free agent and “reluctant” to agree to a sign-and-trade.

New York decided not to sign Porzingis to a rookie extension before the 2018-19 season — allowing him to become a restricted free agent after this season — in part to preserve an extra $10 million in cap space to go after free agents this summer.

Before the trade, the Knicks were projected to have slightly more than $30 million available under the salary cap, enough to lure a max-value contract in free agency. Now, along with Porzingis and Burke, they are also parting ways with two large salaries.Hardaway, a 6-foot-6 guard averaging 19.1 points and 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists a game this season, signed a four-year deal with the Knicks in 2017 worth $71 million. His yearly pay increases from $17.3 million this season to $18.2 million in 2019-20, with a player option in 2020-21 worth almost $19 million.

Lee, a 6-5 guard averaging 4.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in only 12 games this season, signed a four-year deal in 2016 worth $48 million, topping out at more than $12.7 million in 2019-20.Burke, a sixth-year point guard, is averaging 11.8 points per game this season.

If Porzingis decides to play this season with the Mavericks, there’s no telling when he will be ready.

Updating the 23-year-old Porzingis’ condition in December, Knicks president Steve Mills said he couldn’t predict when — or if — the Latvian star would play this season. Mills told reporters then that he wouldn’t put a timetable on his return, while awaiting tests in mid-February.

Porzingis had a run-in with Knicks coach David Fizdale in November, who said his star player had yet to start sprinting as part of his rehab. Porzingis quickly refuted that, posting photos of him sprinting on an outdoor track, along with another shot of UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov captioned, “This is number one bull(bleep).”

A day later, Fizdale tried to clear the air, saying, “I’m the only doofus that didn’t know he had went out to the track. Like I said, part of it is because I’m just locked into (coaching the team).”

Porzingis underwent surgery to repair his torn ACL on Feb. 13, 2018, and initially was expected to be out for at least 10 months. He was averaging 22.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and an NBA-best 2.4 blocks per game at the time of his injury, earning his first career All-Star selection in his third season.

Matthews, a veteran small forward, is averaging 13.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per game this season.Smith, a second-year point guard who was a 2017 lottery pick, is averaging 12.9 points and 4.3 assists per game. He recently returned from an absence from the team after disappointment with head coach Rick Carlisle over his reduced role this season. Jordan, a 6-foot-11 veteran center, is averaging 11.0 points and 13.7 rebounds over 50 games this year.

–Field Level Media

Payback

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Boston 128, New York 100

When: 8:00 PM ET, Thursday, December 6, 2018
Where: TD Garden, Boston
Attendance: 18,624
Recap for Digital Sports Desk by Field Level Media

BOSTON – Kyrie Irving collected 22 points and eight assists as the host Boston Celtics placed seven in double figures and recorded a wire-to-wire 128-100 victory over the New York Knicks on Thursday night to extend their winning streak to four games.

Irving recorded his 15th game with at least 20 points and led Boston in scoring for the 13th time. His showing helped the Celtics win for the fifth time in six games since a 117-109 home loss to New York on Nov. 21 in a game Boston trailed by 26 at one point.

Irving shot 9 of 15 and hit three 3-pointers as the Celtics matched a season-best by shooting 53.3 percent and reached 120 points for the fourth time. The Celtics also scored at least 115 points in four straight games for the first time since December 1990.

Irving ended the game wearing an ice wrap on his right shoulder as the Celtics set a season high in points and in assists with 32.

Boston’s Jaylen Brown added a season-best 21 and shot 7 of 10 after sitting out the previous three games with a back injury. Al Horford added 19 points and a season-high 12 rebounds while Jayson Tatum contributed 17 points for the Celtics.

Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 22 points for the Knicks, who lost their second straight since an overtime win over Milwaukee on Saturday. Emmanuel Mudiay added 17 points and Enes Kanter contributed 14 points and 11 boards as the Knicks shot 39.6 percent.

The Celtics shot 55.1 percent in the first half and took a 69-58 lead by halftime.

The Knicks were within 43-40 on a 3-pointer by rookie Kevin Knox with about 9 1/2 minutes left in the half, but Terry Rozier hit two 3-pointers in a 10-4 run. New York was within five points three times in the final 4 1/2 minutes of the quarter, but Horford had two dunks and scored Boston’s last 11 points before the break.

The Knicks were within 89-82 on a 3-pointer by Hardaway with 3:49 left in the third quarter, but Irving and Gordon Hayward hit 3-pointers and Boston finished the period with a 10-2 run to take a 15-point lead into the fourth.

–Field Level Media

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