Dollars and Sense: The Anti New York ESPN Propaganda Machine

Throughout the courtship process for Lebron James the New York Knicks have seem to become an afterthought.  The media is saying that Ivan Drago and Jay-Z had such a great presentation with their ‘Global Superstar’ pitch.  There are reports that Chicago is a better landing spot because they have a nice young core in place of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah that James got to see first hand in the opening round of the NBA playoffs.  There is the impossible yet intriguing possibility of a Big 3 coming together in Miami that would crush Boston’s championship trio from a few years back.  Finally, there is the old “Home Sweet Home” pitch from Cleveland that is giving James second thoughts about leaving the only place he has called home.  Yet, there is no love for the Big Apple.

Being a New Yorker and knowing James’ Dolan as a fan and a customer I’ll tell you right now he is not my favorite person.  Dolan has turned the Knicks into a laughing stock, a team that used to be known for names like Ewing, Houston, and Sprewell, became linked to names like Marbury, Thomas, and Anuka Browne Sanders.  That’s just my gripe with him as a fan, as a customer I could go on all day.  This is a guy took the Yankees away for a whole season while fighting over dollars with the YES Network.  Now, since Dolan has taken over the team the Knicks have been completely irrelevant to the basketball world, but what if suddenly they became the most popular team in the NBA?  What if they landed Amar’e and Lebron?  They would be pretty good, right?  A team this good would have to always be on the ESPN game of the week.  They would be all over ESPN, ABC, and TNT.  They would be the talk of the basketball world. 

Where am I going with this?  My aforementioned anecdote about the YES Network comes into play here.  Dolan has clearly set a past precedent of going to great lengths to get his money even if it means shutting fans out.  We all know New York is the biggest national market there is.  If Lebron were to come to the Knicks Dolan would want you to watch him on his MSG network, not ESPN.  Anytime the Knicks would be nationally televised it would either be blacked out in the New York tri state area, or shown simultaneously on MSG and whatever national network was showing it.  This takes a big chunk of change out of ESPN’s pockets.  So all of the sudden the Knicks have no shot at Lebron.  All of the sudden the Knicks are the dark horse, a total rebuilding project, more so than a 12-70 team.  Miami has become such a better city to be in than New York, despite all the empty seats you see there or at any other Florida sporting event.  Even with Amar’e Stoudemire in the fold, Chris Broussard still has them in fourth place.  When you use logic and follow the dollar signs it makes perfect sense to see why the media is painting the Knicks as the outcast.