Knicks owner James Dolan decided to step down from NBA board committee roles

James Dolan has been openly questioning the objectivity of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for quite some time now, but his most recent accusation pulled the final straw. The Knicks owner hasn’t been receiving much support from the league ever since he launched a lawsuit against the Toronto Raptors for stealing important information, but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

While he awaits to see the how his legal process unfolds, he decided to resign from the NBA board committee according to a memo obtained by different media sources.

“Given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion,” Dolan said through a memo to Silver back in July, which also shared a copy with each one of the other 29 league owners.

New York Knicks owner James Dolan has resigned from multiple positions he held across various NBA board committees.

"Given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion."

Full story: https://t.co/nL8OrYEaY2

— Complex (@Complex) November 22, 2023

However, this time around he personally informed Silver and other executives of his intentions of leaving the governor meetings. In fact, sources told ESPN that a transition inside the New York franchise has already occurred, as Dolan is handing Knicks general counsel Jamaal Lesane the responsibility of representing his organization in future meetings.

“My hope is that the Knicks will be treated equally and fairly as all other NBA teams,” the team owner said in the memo. “… As you know, I am very busy with all my duties at MSG family of companies. I need to apply my time where I can be most productive.”

James has grown frustrated over his lack of influence in recent counsel decisions. In two recent votes, he was against Michael Jordan’s sale of the Charlotte Hornets to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Shnall, as well as the WNBA expansion to a San Francisco franchise.

Throughout the years, the New York executive has been very vocal about his disagreements with Silver on many issues concerning the NBA’s development. Dolan showed tremendous dissatisfaction with the latest revenue sharing system which requires big-market franchises to give out a high percentage of their earnings to smaller market teams.

The Knicks owner has called out the Raptors governor for having a close relationship with the NBA Commissioner

In the midst of the lawsuit for information theft between the New York and Toronto franchises, Dolan has called out Raptors governor Larry Tanenbaum for being a “close ally to Commissioner Adam Silver,” the Knicks wrote.

“Silver himself described Tanenbaum as ‘not just my boss as the chairman of the board of governors, but he’s very much a role model in my life.’ If Silver were to preside over the instant dispute, he would be arbitrating a case for his boss and ally,” it reads.

After this Monday’s legal filling that opposed any arbitration from the NBA commissioner, the New York club decided to announce there are no provisions in the league’s constitution that protect the theft of intellectual property.