I know, the James Dolan story is so last week. But I’ve been busy working on sermons for revival season and haven’t had a chance to get to it yet. I don’t have anything deeply penetrating to add. Still, I just wanted to highlight a point.

To summarize:

• A New York Knick fan who’s had enough – which describes most Knicks fans, I realize – wrote owner James Dolan a semi-mean e-mail begging him to sell the team.
• While said e-mail was hardly overrun with goodwill and diplomacy, it didn’t say anything that isn’t objectively true. Indeed, most of it was so butt-obvious that you’d be hard pressed to find an objectionable word in it.
• Dolan replied, going all Dick Monfort hate-fuck on the guy. Seriously, it was so nasty that Dolan – a recovering alcoholic and drug abuser hisself – suggested that the e-mailer might be a drunk. Check the text of what JD had to say.

Mr Bierman

You are a sad person. Why would anybody write such a hateful letter. I am.just guessing but ill bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess. What have you done that anyone would consider positive or nice. I am betting nothing. In fact ill bet you are negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21 year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it. Maybe it will help you become a person that folks would like to have around. In the mean while start rooting.for the Nets because the Knicks dont want you.

Respectfully

James Dolan

[emphasis added]

• Dolan has now said he shouldn’t have replied. He didn’t use words like “regret” or “apologize,” of course – like punctuation, those are for poor people and bitches. It’s more like the reaction of a Koch brother after accidentally bumping up against a waiter – as in, “I really shouldn’t have allowed that peasant to touch me. Now I’ll have to burn this suit.”
• The league chose to take no action, with Commissioner Adam Silver chuckling affably and saying something along the lines of “New Yorkers will be New Yorkers, won’t they?”

So this is what happens when an owner says fuck you to a fan. (Actually, the alcoholism thing, in context, is a whole lot worse than a basic garden-variety fuck you, but we can round to the closest whole number for the sake of argument.) What happens when a player does it?

You mean like this?

Come on, Commish, that’s just a negro being a negro, right?

Apologies if I’m not being fair here. But hey, I think I ought to get a little credit for writing this whole post without once using the term “plantation,” oughtn’t I?

Jesus is coming, and when he gets here he’s going to see the Nets.