Although they were ordered earlier this month to personally participate in a March 31 conference call to media their long-running dispute, Knicks owner James Dolan and former NBA big man Charles Oakley will no longer be required to do so, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News details. Instead, their lawyers will take part in the call. According to Bondy, there was a sense that a conference call might not be conducive to mediation between Dolan and Oakley themselves.
Oakley sued Dolan after the Knicks owner had him arrested and banned from Madison Square Garden in 2017. While Tuesday’s call could offer some form of resolution, a face-to-face meeting may be necessary for Dolan and Oakley to truly bury the hatchet. And, as Bondy notes, it’s not clear when that sort of meeting might be viable, given the social-distancing measures enacted in New York, not to mention Dolan’s positive coronavirus test.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Former Knicks head coach David Fizdale and interim replacement Mike Miller both felt that second-year forward Kevin Knox had a tendency to play “soft,” a league source tells Marc Berman of The New York Post. The Knicks have been impressed by Knox’s effort level and the strides he made on the defensive end, but Berman hears from a source that Miller, who was still tasked with winning games following the trade deadline, didn’t feel as if giving Knox heavy minutes was the best way to achieve that goal.
- In an interesting piece for The Athletic, Derek Bodner takes a look at how things might have been different for the Sixers if they hadn’t traded up to select Markelle Fultz in the 2017 draft. Bodner refers to the decision as “the turning point of when the Sixers’ team-building became complicated.”
- Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald takes a look at what the Celtics got out of each player on their roster in 2019/20 and what the team might have expected from those players if the season hadn’t been postponed.
- In case you missed it, we rounded up a few Nets-related rumors and notes earlier this afternoon.
Get well soon Mr Dolan.
So he can get that argument with Oakley?
Knox is soft. NYC is not for everyone one. It has broken plenty of stars in every sport. Problem I have. This franchise doesn’t develop its talent. You draft kids, 19 yr olds. Then u wonder why they don’t perform. This is a Mans league. Any and every player needs to play to develop. So Frank, Knox, Mitch, DSJ, Trier. All would have benefited from playing in NBDL. Learning the system n league. That’s what it’s there for.
While the one and done rule may have weeded out some bad picks, one year of college does not allow enough emotional/mental maturation to occur. So we still see players who flop in the NBA or take few years to develop. If college kids could get paid for playing, call it work study, then more of that development could occur in college.
Knox is 20 years old, and – unlike some other players his age – has yet to grow into his body. For this reason, his lack of physicality doesn’t concern me, but other things do, like his lack of focus or energy. Bigger picture, Knox has to understand his development is primarily his responsibility, and he has to own all his performances. Yes, like any young player, he needs opportunity, but for PT to be that it has to come with roles, expectations and accountability. NBA or G-league. Miller didn’t have the time or capital to focus much on the disaster that Knox devolved into last season, and that may end up being a good thing. Certainly, Fiz’s Father Flanigan routine wasn’t helpful. The FO could have stepped in with Knox and other young players that had little path to significant PT, and used the G-league, but that can’t just be send them up there for some exercise and that appears all the lame duck FO was capable of.