James Dolan, Unplugged
James Dolan, Unplugged espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/25519902/james-dolan-unplugged For two stormy decades, New York's most famous sports enigma has lorded over the Knicks, the Rangers and Madison Square Garden without apology. by Ian O'Connor 12/17/18 NEW YORK -- James Dolan is dressed in black as he sinks into his couch in a Madison Square Garden suite, drags on a vape pen and laughs at the booming sound check next door that is all but violently shaking the room. Justin Timberlake is just warming up, and so, it turns out, is Dolan, who is about to commit two hours to an examination -- his critics might call it an autopsy -- of his two decades as the most powerful and polarizing sports figure in the world's most talked-about town. Bruised vocal cords would actually prevent JT from performing on this night, not that JD, the bandleader of JD & The Straight Shot, planned to stay for the show. Dolan is engaged in too many projects and conflicts on too many fronts to count, and on this hectic day, he stays busy in a rare interview by switching from offense to defense and back again, a transition his New York Knicks have failed to figure out for the better part of 17 years. Even though he stands only 5-foot-6, Dolan, 63, fancies himself a fighter and has the scars to prove it. He has taken on all comers, sometimes foolishly, yet always leading with his chin and an unbending belief that he is doing right by his family, his employees and his shareholders, not necessarily in that order.
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