The Steinbrenner Standard Is Within Dolan's Reach
There once was a time when George Steinbrenner was the most publicly reviled and criticized owner in sports. Steinbrenner's reign seemed to fall into the absurd when he got into a feud with Dave "Mr. May" Winfield and took his efforts at revenge beyond their baseball business relationship. The episode leading to his second suspension from baseball could have marked the end or signalled the continuation of a horrible reign. Instead, Steinbrenner, the competitive perfectionist, returned and transformed the Yankees into a world class champion and perennial contender for the games' biggest honor. In the process of overcoming his past mistakes and learning how to build a winner, Steinbrenner set a modern standard as a winning owner.
No one can say that James Dolan does not care about the Knicks (or the Rangers). He is clearly willing to spend money to at least give the appearance that he is building a winning team. But beyond being prepared to overpay for names -- Eddie Curry, Jerome James, Chris Duhon and Amar'e Stoudemire to name a few -- Mr. Dolan seems unprepared to make himself or members of his organization accountable to a winning philosophy. Bearing in mind that our perceptions are skewed by a biased media, which is more concerned about developing villains for a daily diet of marketable story lines than whether our sports teams are actually winners, we still must be mindful of the obvious and the waterfall of leaks about how poorly the organization continues to be run despite financial successes. Dolan's organizational decisions over the last ten years reveal that he values marketing -- name recognition, media control -- over winning. One must wonder what would happen if he refocused his priorities from controlling perceptions to shaping reality where the Knicks would be today.
Nevertheless, now is the time for Dolan to take control of his destiny and become the greatest owner in New York sports history. It is entirely possible although he probably made a serious error in paying Amar'e Stoudemire $100 million dollars to be the Knicks leader for the next five years. It is understandable, that after two years of utterly dismal play because of LePlan -- horde money, dismantle a team, attract a King -- that the Dolan did not want to appear to be an absolute failure after losing the LeBron shell game. It is understandable especially if one's priority is perception over team building. He sorta kinda won the perception war, for a media minute, but now that he has saved face with a fan base that desires to remain hopeful, it is time to change philosophies and priorities. Now is a great time to think and be a winner instead of pretending to act like one.
No time is greater that now to become the best. What better time than to slay the dragon created by Knicks nemisis Pat Riley and superstars with enough foresight to take control of their destiny? What better time to build the team that will turn the Heat's guaranteed success into an epic failure and a historical rivalry?
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Looks like we all can get along when we need to. Cablevision has gained some friends in their... Read Full Story »
