Despite the New York Knicks not making the playoffs for the 10th time in 13 years, there's still fun and games around Madison Square Garden. On Wednesday, MSG chairman James Dolan admitted he got into a shouting match with a fan outside the arena Tuesday night.
"I did call (the fan) an asshole," Dolan told Deadspin's Dave McKenna. "Because he is an asshole."
The fan in this case is Mike Hamersky, a 35-year-old Knicks season ticket holder from Queens, who spotted Dolan prior to Tuesday's game against the Chicago Bulls. Hamersky said he yelled, "Sell the team, Jim!" in Dolan's direction, prompting a stern rebuke.
Hamersky said that Dolan then replied: "What if I showed up at your office and called you an asshole? Because you are an asshole!"
Dolan noted that he thought Hamersky was consuming alcohol outside MSG and appeared intoxicated. "He had an open bottle of beer and smelled of alcohol, and I told him he wasn't going in," the billionaire said.
Hamersky denies he was drinking, and said a member of Garden security then followed him for two blocks before he looped back to meet his friend and entered the arena without incident.
The friend, Raul Silva, said: "I told Mike, 'Man, you're going to get Oakleyed!'"
Related: Oakley still wants apology from Knicks
The story is the latest flap for the Knicks and Dolan, who banned former fan favorite Charles Oakley from the legendary arena after an incident in February. While Dolan later said the ban was lifted, Oakley refuses to talk to the owner, who has alienated fans, media, and former players alike.
Dolan, who rarely gives interviews, candidly expanded on the episode further - offering a window into the mindset of a near-universally maligned chief executive of a famous, long-suffering sports concern.
"I get it," Dolan said. "They call me names every day in the paper. Fine. I get it. But you're walking up to the place where I work? It's like they're laying in wait for you. It's like stalking me outside my home. Some people tend to think of team owners like politicians. But we're not! I didn't run for any office. These people who yell at you act surprised when you yell back. It's like when I got that incredibly derogatory email, and so I wrote back an incredibly derogatory email, and these people are surprised?"
Dolan faced widespread criticism in 2015 after replying to an email from a 72-year-old Knicks fan suggesting he was an alcoholic.
