About 13 and a half years and more than 500 regular-season games have passed since the Knicks played in front of so few fans at Madison Square Garden, with one in six spots empty Wednesday night. « I went to bed last night. You know what I was thinking? Am I going to go to the grave without another banner being hoisted into the world`s most famous arena? Lee said. Because at this point – between the ban of a supporter, the arrest of the team legend, Charles Oakley, and the quarrel with his most loyal supporter; The Knicks have enough material to make an anti-agent recruitment video. What policy was she seized from? Petulant? Whatever the disagreements, the New York Knicks can`t say about Spike Lee. Do you think the Lakers would make a policy without sunglasses and have someone removed from Jack Nicholson`s face? After arguing with his beloved team, the filmmaker and Courtside Fixture said he was ready for the year. The Knicks doubled in saying he wasn`t a victim. In many ways, the Oscar winner is the face of the franchise. This man has proudly rejected this sad team.
Do you know how you can say he`s been associated with Madison Square Garden for a long time? He`s front and center there since the last time the Knicks were good! (You`ve won a playoff series since I finished high school.) Oakley, a former Knicks player, was violently removed from his Courtside seat during a game in 2017 to yell at Dolan and fight with security guards. He was later arrested. Anything would be a good reason to denounce the Knicks. But these are not the reasons why Spike Lee, the most famous Knicks fan in the world, announced his decoupling from the team. On one level, the feud is linked to Lee`s entry and exit privileges at Madison Square Garden, which, like tax evasion and the genes of paparazzi, have the kind of trouble in which you can only end up if you`re a wealthy celebrity. But dig deeper, and it will be a story of loyalty, a story of respect, a story of the good meaning of a handshake. Let me explain. Lee said he didn`t have much of a relationship with Dolan before the incident. Despite the recurring calls to Dolan to sell the team in the midst of ever-darker seasons, with no end in sight, ticket sales for the Knicks` home games remain strong (and Dolan still earns money).
A lot of fans seem to have been a little quiet with the mismanagement, if only because you have to be at the game to chant « Sell the team! » in Dolan. The Knicks may be horrible, but the Knicks` idea – as embodied by Lee Courtside, or in the preseason team`s promise to return to the tenacious style of 90s basketball, with which players like Oakley are so closely linked – remains a real draw (for fans, if not a player), whether management seems to recognize it or not. The Oscar-winning writer-director told ESPN on Tuesday that he would not participate in another Knicks home game this season, after he disagreed with Madison Square Garden officials a night earlier on the elevator he could use. There are many reasons why a New York Knicks fan could be involved in a public feud with the notoriously mismanaged franchise. The team negotiates its best young player to save money under the salary cap. Or sources at Madison Square Garden who have been whispering for months about the supposed arrival of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, none of whom would sign with the team.