The Verdict Is In

The jury could reach a verdict in the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment trial as early as today, but one judgment is already available:  [James Dolan], CEO of Madison Square Garden and owner of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, is one of the worst executives in New York City.  To paraphrase [The Big Lebowski,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/) that’s gotta put him in the running for worst executive worldwide.  In case you haven’t been following the daily happenings inside the Manhattan Federal Courthouse, check out this entertaining summary from the wildly popular [Bill Simmons of ESPN.com](http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070927). 

What the New York tabloids have missed in the flush of titillating details about backseat escapes with hyper-sexualized athletes, is the emerging picture of James Dolan as a vile and lecherous executive who thinks daddy’s money gives him the divine right to do whatever he wants.  That Dolan is an embarrassingly ineffective sports owner has been common knowledge for some time, and legacy CEOs running their corporations through intimidation, fiat and a Greco-Roman flair for the perverse is hardly shocking. Yet Dolan is not in charge of the “Making Useless Stuff More Expensive” corporation. He’s running the standard bearer for the venerable institution of New York City basketball.  He’s running The World’s Most Famous Arena.  He’s in charge of a thing that represents something called hockey, which I think is being threatened by global warming.  As New Yorkers we should all be shocked and appalled when our shared civic institutions are driven into the ground like a Mercedes Benz licensed to Billy Joel.

    It’s Dolan’s constitutional right to run his businesses however he wants, but he has no authority to defecate on the civic pride of New York City.  Isiah Thomas may be sketchy and Anucha Browne Sanders may not be credible, but James Dolan hired them both.  It is a shame that there is no jury that can mete out appropriate justice for a city he has slandered and harassed for far too long.