Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / OneLegUpAlex Media Reacts to James Dolan Interview on WFAN from Jan 2026 (recorded 4-16-26)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garrett.
- 0:04Speaker 2: First of all, something's up in the water with the
- 0:06Speaker 2: podcast world.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Over the last thirty days.
- 0:09Speaker 2: And by the way, thanks for listening to my tribute
- 0:11Speaker 2: to my dad. And hopefully if you knew him and
- 0:14Speaker 2: you know of the show and you got to hear
- 0:17Speaker 2: his voice, that maybe it brings back some good memories
- 0:19Speaker 2: you had with him over the years as well. I
- 0:22Speaker 2: look today and the tribute series and I did Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
- 0:26Speaker 2: plus other things.
- 0:28Speaker 1: The podcast downloads have sort of blown up now.
- 0:31Speaker 2: Of course I did it as a personal reflection. I
- 0:33Speaker 2: didn't expect it to blow up that much as much
- 0:35Speaker 2: as it has. But we downloaded nineteen hundred and sixty
- 0:38Speaker 2: four times. That's the year of the World's Fair. Nineteen
- 0:42Speaker 2: hundred sixty four times. You guys downloaded the show in
- 0:45Speaker 2: the last thirty days, and I'm so appreciative of that.
- 0:49Speaker 1: And this is where I feel like the elevation of
- 0:51Speaker 1: the show can go because.
- 0:54Speaker 2: Maybe you didn't hear the Nicks and Rangers owner, basically
- 1:01Speaker 2: James Dolan. He was on with Craig Carton earlier in
- 1:08Speaker 2: the year, in fact in January, but Carton and McGonagall
- 1:13Speaker 2: Chris McGonagall hosted James Dolan and he had some interesting
- 1:20Speaker 2: mindsets on both the Rangers and the Knicks, which I
- 1:22Speaker 2: want to play you right now.
- 1:24Speaker 1: I will post the full interview link and the trips below.
- 1:27Speaker 1: We want to.
- 1:28Speaker 2: Rightfully cite the right people that put out this interview,
- 1:31Speaker 2: all twenty nine minutes of it, so I'll do that
- 1:33Speaker 2: in the link below.
- 1:34Speaker 1: I have one look at alex.
- 1:35Speaker 2: Media, but I gotta give credit to Christian Winfield of
- 1:40Speaker 2: The Daily News who writes Mike Brown Knicks up for
- 1:43Speaker 2: title or bust expectations after Dolan's mandate, and which he
- 1:48Speaker 2: wrote Knicks head coach Mike Brown doesn't think about their
- 1:51Speaker 2: ramifications his team will face if they don't make it
- 1:54Speaker 2: to the NBA Finals this season, as owner James Dolan
- 1:58Speaker 2: mandated in a rare WF appearance in January, so I
- 2:02Speaker 2: of course hunted that appearance down.
- 2:05Speaker 1: I want to play for you a couple sections right.
- 2:07Speaker 3: Now because of the way, particularly basketball, but also hockey too,
- 2:13Speaker 3: the way the sport's evolving, the how much more complicated
- 2:16Speaker 3: it is. You know, we're very very big on development
- 2:21Speaker 3: in both clubs because you can't It's not like the
- 2:27Speaker 3: old days like the old Yankees, where you know, you
- 2:29Speaker 3: get Reggie jacks in and this guy and this guy
- 2:32Speaker 3: that put colin and put together a team. You really,
- 2:35Speaker 3: it's really it's almost impossible to do that in the NBA.
- 2:38Speaker 3: You have to home grow, right, some of your talent,
- 2:41Speaker 3: and that build that also builds up trade currency, et cetera.
- 2:45Speaker 3: But it's it's a development thing. And that's a team
- 2:49Speaker 3: of people. There's literally twenty people right who are specifically,
- 2:54Speaker 3: you know, dedicated to developing the players, to getting their
- 2:57Speaker 3: skill levels up, to getting the the strategy on the
- 3:01Speaker 3: court in right.
- 3:03Speaker 2: So part of that's developed players that become trade pieces,
- 3:06Speaker 2: developed players that obviously become valuable depth guys off your.
- 3:09Speaker 3: Bet and and that, and that's important for the development
- 3:13Speaker 3: of a franchise, right, the and the and that. Really,
- 3:19Speaker 3: you know, Tom liked development, but he didn't really Well,
- 3:23Speaker 3: he's the guy that you know, he likes playing the veterans,
- 3:26Speaker 3: he likes playing the guys that you know, buy into
- 3:28Speaker 3: his system and.
- 3:29Speaker 1: Guys like that.
- 3:30Speaker 3: And he asked about his career have a shelf life, right,
- 3:32Speaker 3: and he got to an Eastern Conference final. You guys
- 3:35Speaker 3: collectively had to have felt that while the run was great,
- 3:39Speaker 3: and he gets a lot of credit for being a
- 3:41Speaker 3: part of the Nick turnaround.
- 3:42Speaker 1: That you couldn't win a title with him? That how
- 3:45Speaker 1: to be the thinking right or be unlikely that you would.
- 3:48Speaker 3: I will I won't say you can't win a title
- 3:51Speaker 3: with Tom Thibodeau. That I don't. I don't necessarily know
- 3:53Speaker 3: that's true. It's just that if you want to build
- 3:57Speaker 3: a long term competitive pete for the you know, you
- 4:01Speaker 3: need a different guy. You need somebody who's, you know,
- 4:04Speaker 3: much more of a collaboratory than Tom was.
- 4:09Speaker 2: And then Chris mcmonagall asked him about the NBA Cup
- 4:13Speaker 2: what it was like winning it, and his answer was
- 4:15Speaker 2: pretty flat out, very proud.
- 4:17Speaker 3: Of the guys. They did a great job. And so
- 4:20Speaker 3: we're proud to have have the Emirates Cup. But but
- 4:24Speaker 3: we're going to hang a chance, right.
- 4:27Speaker 2: So they want to hang a banner in the rafters
- 4:29Speaker 2: this season, not Emirates Cup, not NBA Cup, NBA Finals banner.
- 4:36Speaker 2: And you know what I keep saying it, this is
- 4:39Speaker 2: the year, this is the core kat Jalen Josh who
- 4:43Speaker 2: I of course met at the C four Energy pop
- 4:45Speaker 2: up a few weeks ago. And then you got the
- 4:49Speaker 2: Colex of the Knicks and.
- 4:52Speaker 1: The Shamans of the Knicks.
- 4:53Speaker 2: I mean, Mike Brown's rotations have really improved the situation
- 4:59Speaker 2: we were in the last couple of years because of
- 5:02Speaker 2: workload management that Tom Thibodeau did not execute well. Great
- 5:06Speaker 2: coach got us farther than we've have been in it
- 5:08Speaker 2: before in a while. But now's the time to elevate
- 5:13Speaker 2: the game. And as I said, you can listen to
- 5:16Speaker 2: the full remarks from James Ollen in the link below,
- 5:19Speaker 2: but I got to say to you know, when he
- 5:20Speaker 2: makes these media appearances, it's very rare that he does so,
- 5:24Speaker 2: but it's very important to talk about when he does.
- 5:27Speaker 2: And in that first clip about development, it kind of
- 5:30Speaker 2: explains why he's okay with Chris Jury blowing up the Rangers,
- 5:34Speaker 2: why the Rangers are not making it to the postseason
- 5:36Speaker 2: again this year, and then why he believes it's not
- 5:41Speaker 2: just the Emirates Cup we're going for. It's championships or bust.
- 5:45Speaker 2: We're hanging a bat on the rafters for the NBA Championship.
- 5:49Speaker 2: I love that mentality. I think the Knicks have it.
- 5:52Speaker 2: I think they have a great shot.
- 5:54Speaker 1: I was talking with somebody about the NBA playing series.
- 5:57Speaker 2: I don't really understand it. She was trying to explain
- 6:01Speaker 2: to me. It just really didn't make sense. I mean, God,
- 6:04Speaker 2: bless her for trying to explain it. But thank god
- 6:08Speaker 2: the Nicks wanted.
- 6:08Speaker 1: To deal with that this year. Thank god.
- 6:11Speaker 2: But do you have to deal with the Trey Young
- 6:13Speaker 2: less Hawks? And I think that makes it easier, doesn't it.
- 6:16Speaker 2: Trey Young was the villain. He was the villain, but
- 6:23Speaker 2: now he's not even.
- 6:25Speaker 1: In the playoffs. The Wizards even in the playoffs. So
- 6:29Speaker 1: Knicks get the Hawks.
- 6:30Speaker 2: Maybe that rich tool help because the Hawks happened to
- 6:33Speaker 2: him better since that trade.
- 6:34Speaker 1: Have to say, and it'll be a battle.
- 6:39Speaker 2: Look, these NBA series, first round or not, are always
- 6:42Speaker 2: a battle.
- 6:44Speaker 1: Every round in the NBA playoffs always seems like a grind.
- 6:47Speaker 2: More than any other sport, more than any other sport.
- 6:53Speaker 1: And I expect nothing less this weekend. And one more thing.
- 6:58Speaker 2: Latino Official Sports throwing a watch party for Knicks Game
- 7:03Speaker 2: one at American Whiskey. I'll be there, I hope you
- 7:07Speaker 2: are too. And here we go NBA Postseason twenty twenty six.
- 7:13Speaker 2: I remember when the plaza outside the garden was flooded
- 7:16Speaker 2: with Nick fans.
- 7:17Speaker 1: I want to see that again. I want to see
- 7:19Speaker 1: that again in twenty twenty six.
- 7:22Speaker 2: And I want to see us get further with a
- 7:24Speaker 2: healthier bench, a healthier roster.
- 7:28Speaker 1: And a team that's in its prime. This is its prime.
- 7:32Speaker 1: If you're the New York Knicks, go New York, Go
- 7:36Speaker 1: New York, Go up. One look of alex Media