For most organizations the night your rookie guard drops a career high 27 points, going toe-to-toe with James Harden, would be the headline. But the New York Knicks are not most organizations.
Prior to the Knicks 125-123 victory over the Houston Rockets, a video surfaced of MSG security trying to remove Spike Lee from the arena, with the famed director shouting arrest me like you did Charles Oakley.
Director Spike Lee denied entry to MSG. Rumors are circulating that MSG CEO James Dolan didn’t want the famed director to enter. #SpikeLee #MSG pic.twitter.com/0gZVaHDXBP
— BroTalkLive (@BroTalkLivePod) March 3, 2020
Security stopped Lee telling him he had to leave the arena and enter through a different entrance, despite that being the same entrance the star has used for decades. Lee told his side of the story earlier today on ESPN’s First Take
Spike Lee joined @firsttake to explain last night's incident at MSG. pic.twitter.com/xsjGHApDqH
— ESPN (@espn) March 3, 2020
What I can’t seem to wrap my head around is why now? And why treat your most famous fan, a staple of Knicks games for 30 years, like this. Ask yourself, would the Los Angeles Lakers treat actor Jack Nicholson like this? Or would the Toronto Raptors have this issue with Drake? Or even the Atlanta Hawks with Quavo?
When you have a celebrity that is a true fan, a staple of your teams games, and in Spike Lee’s case a part of the teams history, you treat them like royalty and with respect. Spike Lee pays $300K a year to be a Knicks season ticket holder. He’s been doing that for 30 years. The man has spent close to $10 million to watch what has consistently been abysmal basketball for the better part of the past two decades.
But the truth is this is just the latest avoidable conflict that just got doused in lighter fluid and lit up by James Dolan. The embarrassing forceful removal of Knicks legend Charles Oakley, to the removal of a fan for chanting “sell the team” to being un able to let his ego go and invite Marv Albert back to be apart of the 50 year anniversary of the 1970 NBA Championship team. In the grand scheme of things, these are all small isolated things, but with the repetitive behavior, joined in with the constant losing, this is just who the New York Knicks have become under Dolan.
Damnit the year before James Dolan took control of the Knicks, the team was in the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. Since then, they own the worst winning percentage of any NBA team. The basketball decisions and mistakes and be forgiven under the assumption that he does not know the game. But what is unforgivable and no reason for is the non basketball actions that always seem to become negatives for the Knicks. However he is not selling the team so it is what it is at this point.
So rather than let this latest controversy completely overshadow Barrett’s career night, let’s talk about it. Barrett went for 27 points on 10-18 shooting, with 5 rebounds and 5 assists, including the moment of the night where Barrett made a clutch basket over P.J. Tucker sealing the victory for the Knicks. His performance garnered praise from the NBA’s leading scorer.
“Aggressive,” Harden said about Barrett’s performance. “I like it, especially as a rookie. He’s not timid at all. When you’re aggressive and confident in your game, you look good out there.”
