James Dolan Used To Give Free Agents A Copy Of His CD

NEW YORK – When New York Knicks executives chased free agents in the summer of 2010, owner James Dolan made himself a part of the presentations. He isn’t the most engaging, enchanting man, but Dolan does fancy himself a musician. So, yes, there were player and agent meetings four years ago when Dolan delivered a parting gift on the way out of the room. “He passed out copies of his CD,” said a source, who stuffed his copy of one into a bag and no longer remembers where it’s gone. It featured the melodies of JD and the Straight Shot, Dolan’s corner-bar band that bought itself into the opening act on tour with the Eagles. Dolan’s world revolves around the Eagles, and no one has helped meld his fantasy camp/groupie life of bad teams and super groups more gloriously than notorious ball-busting Eagles business manager Irving Azoff.

I got a question. Do people actually listen to JD and the Straight Shot? Like people actually open up their iTunes and put on one of their songs? People pay money for a ticket to go to a James Dolan concert? That cannot possibly be the case. Right? I’m 100% convinced anyone in the crowd when Jim Dolan is performing is a kidnapped hostage being held against their will. I’m pretty sure he straight up purchased the Eagles and forced them to go on tour and let his dumb ass band open for them. Anyone casually listening to a JD and the Straight Shot song is being held at gunpoint. There’s just no fucking chance anyone willingly listens to that Ewok and his garage band.

Anyway, I tried to make a promise to myself after the Phil Jackson signing that I wouldn’t bash Dolan anymore. He did his job. He brought in one of the best basketball minds in the business. He ponied up big time money and promised to take a back seat. He did several interviews with various media outlets that really went a long way to convincing Knicks fans he was gonna give Phil control and step away from basketball decisions. Despite a decade of disaster, right this moment theres not much more you can ask from your owner. But when I hear that he used to give out free copies of his CD trying to woo free agents it almost erases all the goodwill I’ve felt towards him the past couple days. That is so absolutely, ridiculously preposterous it makes it hard to ever have faith in the guy. Passing out free CDs like some subway performer. Like the Asian man sitting on the platform playing a sitar or the Mariachi band playing on the 6 train. Dude is a billionaire attempting to bring major superstars to Madison Square Garden and he’s passing out his EP like that annoying kid in high school who started a band and thought he was gonna make it big. Thats so embarrassing it almost doesn’t make sense. Here I am – an idiot blogger – feeling embarrassed for a man that owns the Knicks, Rangers, MSG and Cablevision. I never thought that would be possible. But a grown man passing out his fake CDs to pro athletes thinking that makes a difference is so cringeworthy, thats where we’re at. Amazing.