LAS VEGAS — In the last year, the Knicks sued another NBA team, questioned the commissioner’s objectivity and sent a scathing letter to the other owners about the league’s direction.
Given a chance to respond or elaborate Tuesday, Adam Silver mostly sidestepped the issues with the Knicks and James Dolan.
“My response is we try to keep these issues in the family. And I would say, yes, Jim Dolan did send a letter out to his partner teams and to the league office,” Silver said after the owners meetings in Vegas. “That was discussed certainly at our meetings. But I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into the specifics of what was discussed at our meeting.”
Silver was also asked about a New York court’s decision last month to send the Knicks’ lawsuit against the Raptors back to the commissioner to arbitrate.
As part of the suit, the Knicks claimed Silver couldn’t objectively settle the dispute because, in part, he was beholden to Raptors minority owner Larry Tanenbaum.
“The second part of your question [about the Knicks questioning my objectivity], I won’t respond to,” Silver said. “The first part is that we did receive notice of the court’s decision and are in the process of working through those issues at the league office right now.”
With his long-standing problems with the NBA’s revenue-sharing model as the backdrop, Dolan has gone scorched earth against the NBA’s new media deal and Silver, in particular.
In the letter from Dolan that was obtained by ESPN, the former Cablevision scion noted his beef with the revenue sharing and added more grievances while forcefully concluding, “Pride of ownership is what is sacrificed.
We are well on our way to becoming a one size fits all, characterless organization. Just remember we did this on the backs of owners like Jerry Buss.”
Dolan argued the NBA’s new media rights deal would leave Regional Sports Networks “unviable” since too many of the games are given to the national broadcasters.
Dolan owns MSG Network, which has not been immune to the dramatic diminishment of cable subscribers during the streaming service boom.
On Tuesday, Silver reiterated his emphasis on streaming services as the league finalizes its $76 billion media rights megadeal.
Dolan did not attend the NBA’s Board of Governors meetings Tuesday in Vegas, instead sending MSG Sports COO Jamaal Lesane as the Knicks representative.
In August, the Knicks filed a lawsuit against the Raptors for stealing scouting information through a video coordinator.
It was rare for one NBA team to sue another given they’re business partners and there’s an NBA constitution, but the Knicks sought more than $10 million in damages and argued that Silver was too compromised to settle it.
