On a night where the Knicks should have been celebrating an upset win over the Houston Rockets, RJ Barrett‘s most impressive performance of the season and the first win under new president Leon Rose, we instead found ourselves in the midst of a court-side scuffle. This scuffle wasn’t anything physical but truthfully, had it been physical, it might have been better than the drama that would ensue.
This brush up was between ownership and perhaps the face of the New York Knicks right now, Spike Lee.
Outraged regarding the reports, Stephen A Smith had Lee on First Take the next morning in which he shared his thoughts and these details about the incident:
To this, the Knicks PR department responded with an official statement regarding the situation:
While there are many sides to this altercation, it can really be broken down into a few statements.
#1: The customer is always right
Regardless of who it is, at the end of the day, Spike Lee is the paying customer and the Knicks are the business he is dealing with. If Lee feels that he was not treated properly, it is not the Knicks’ job to combat his feelings and tell him that he was wrong, it’s to make the situation clear and correct.
#2: Every customer should not be treated the same
Some people may not want to hear this, but while all people deserve to be treated equally, in the business world some people need to be treated better than others. In this instance, Spike Lee is arguably the face of the Knicks — more so than any player on the current roster — and also spends millions of dollars on his tickets year in and year out. He had mentioned on First Take how if his initial deposit for the upcoming season is ever late — even by one day — the Knicks call him immediately. If James Dolan and the Knicks were so strict about this policy change and wouldn’t allow Spike to enter the building if he didn’t follow the change, they would have reached out to him prior to Lee walking in the building Monday night.
#3: Are we really surprised?
Embarrassingly enough, this is nothing new for the New York Knicks. Incidents involving former players and fans seem to come up every season. Many of these altercations are swept under the rug and don’t get the publicity like this most recent one has. When you have former players like Charles Oakley being taken away from the arena in handcuffs, or Spike Lee being taken off in an elevator and told to walk outside, the Knicks set themselves up to have a bad reputation around the league. This is the most concerning part about this whole altercation… and NBA players are certainly aware of the way the next treat their “family.”
https://twitter.com/JaredDudley619/status/1234910579543773184?s=20
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