According to NBA reporter Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, New York Knicks owner James Dolan is upset with the NBA’s revenue-sharing system.
“Dolan’s biggest gripe with the league, according to several sources around the NBA and familiar with Dolan, has been with the league’s revenue sharing system,” Vorkunov wrote. “The NBA allocates money from the teams in its biggest markets and gives to those in the smallest as a way of trying to create an even financial playing field. Ultimately, that puts the financial burden on just a handful of franchises, with the Knicks chief among them.”
Dolan is one of the most famous owners in professional sports. He owns the Knicks and New York Rangers.
Both the Knicks and Rangers play their home games at Madison Square Garden.
“The Garden, multiple team and league sources say, is the hardest building to access in the NBA,” Vorkunov wrote. “It is the only NBA arena where the league’s distributed credentials don’t work; team, league and union employees must apply for new ones every time they visit. One opposing team official said he has requested extras just out of spite.”
The NBA’s revenue-sharing system is a construct meant to level the playing field between large and small market teams.
Dolan has sent at least four letters to the board of governors and has voted against WNBA expansion twice. He also voted no on the NBA’s 2024-25 budget and the election of its board chairman.
The Knicks have publicly accused the NBA of harassment and retribution.
“The NBA reaches out to teams annually to file coaches’ contracts with the league for their records, multiple league sources said, and follows up with an early-season reminder later on for any contracts that they don’t have,” Vorkunov wrote. “MSG Sports, in a statement, claimed this was ‘more harassment of the Knicks due to our opposition to certain NBA matters.'”
This season, the Knicks said the NBA was investigating the promotion of assistant coach Rick Brunson as a possible circumvention of the salary cap. New York said the NBA reached out for a copy of Brunson’s contract.
The NBA never acknowledged that it was investigating the Knicks and refused to comment. The league previously punished the Knicks in 2022 when it stripped them of a 2025 second-round pick for negotiating too early with Jalen Brunson.
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