DETROIT — James Dolan is breaking his silence.
The Knicks owner is scheduled to appear at 5:30 p.m. Monday on WFAN for the relaunch of Craig Carton’s show, the radio host announced.
Dolan was last interviewed by a media member about the Knicks or Rangers in January 2023, when he also sat down with Carton on WFAN.
Since then, the Knicks fired coach Tom Thibodeau despite advancing to the franchise’s first conference finals since 2000. Then they hired Mike Brown. They also won the NBA Cup but declined to hang a banner.
Dolan has yet to speak on any of those decisions. Brown, who speaks with Dolan after most home games, recently applauded the owner’s contributions and setting the bar high.
“You look at a team on paper, you’re around the team a little bit. You’re like, ‘OK man, we legitimately have a chance to like win this whole thing,’ ” Brown said. “We’re trying to friggin’ win and win at a high level. We have a chance here because of the roster, the guys on the roster and the coaches I have on my staff and Leon [Rose] and Jim Dolan.
“We’ve got a chance.”
The Knicks (23-12) are second in the East and three games behind the No. 1 Pistons (26-9), with those two teams facing off Monday night in Detroit.
The Knicks haven’t finished with the best record in the conference since 1993.
Josh Hart was ruled out of Monday’s game against the Pistons with an ankle sprain, his sixth consecutive absence. The Knicks are 2-3 since his injury.
Landry Shamet is also out again, awaiting clearance for contact after his shoulder popped out of its socket Nov. 22.
The Pistons won’t have regular starters Jalen Duren (ankle) and Tobias Harris (hip).
Brown continues to send a message that his players should leave the refs alone.
“Officials are human,” the coach said after the Knicks fell Saturday to the 76ers 130-119. “They’re going to make good calls, they’re going to make bad calls. And we can’t rely on officials to win us the ballgame. We have to go win it ourselves. The reality of it is even with us fouling late, they shot 23 free throws, we shot 32. We had 18 fouls called against us and they had 23 called. So we have to do a better job of just focusing on what our job is or what we can do to help the group get over the hump and win the ballgame. … The officials are the officials. They’ve been fine.”
Perhaps not coincidentally, a league source said the Knicks desired a coach who would commit to a better rapport with the officials before they hired Brown. Thibodeau tended to be gruff with the refs and consistently shouted.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
