According to former NBA commissioner David Stern, the spiteful email team owner James Dolan recently sent to a fan who’s been rooting for the New York Knicks for some six decades is “a nothing”.
Stern, naturally, backs current commish Adam Silver’s decision not to act after the message came to light this week.
Despite the bubbling anger from Knicks fans, Stern says that punishing Dolan over this latest controversy makes no sense.
Per ESPN:
“Would I discipline James Dolan for that email?” Stern asked. “Why would I do that?”
“We have our own brand of due process,” Stern later added. “In terms of all the things that people should be held accountable for … if you are looking for every email that gets sent to a fan who sends a nasty email, I’m sorry … that’s almost beneath the commissioner’s duties.”
Stern, who retired after three decades last February and has been staying busy as the CEO of DJS Global Advisors, said Dolan’s email isn’t even a blip on the radar when it comes to serious concerns the NBA has had to deal with over the years. […] “That’s a nothing,” Stern said. “There have been some serious issues in our time from Magic (Johnson’s HIV) to Ron Artest to you name it, we’ve dealt with it. This doesn’t raise … this is just New York at its best, which is let’s make something out of nothing.”
