James Dolan has gotten "feelers" from potential bidders interested in purchasing the Knicks that have gone up to $5 billion, and while he doesn't want to sell, he didn't rule out that it could happen in an interview with ESPN.
Dolan, the chairman and CEO of the Madison Square Garden company, recently began the process of spinning off the company's sports teams from its entertainment entities, sparking the idea that he was interested in selling the Knicks.
But there have been no "bona fide" offers and Dolan said that no one in his family is looking to sell.
Still, he left open the chance that he would unload the Knicks for business reasons.
"I love the Knicks and Rangers, right, but you still have a responsibility to your shareholders," Dolan said in the interview. "They're not there because they're fans. You don't invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a stock because you're a fan. You do it because you think that the business is going to increase in value, that the stock price is going to go up. You have a responsibility as the guy who runs the place to deliver on that for them, that's being open and transparent. And so in that position, I could never say that I wouldn't consider selling the Knicks."
Dolan has had a rocky tenure since taking over the Knicks in 1999. It has included front office upheaval, ongoing coaching changes, organizational chaos and plenty of losing. There was also the 2007 sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former employee Anucha Browne Sanders, which the Knicks lost.
Still, Dolan said the Knicks and Rangers are good assets and he and his family like owning them.
That doesn't mean, though, he wouldn't consider selling if the situation called for it.
"As a majority owner, I don't want to sell, either," Dolan said. "As the head of the public company, you can't say you can't sell, because then you're telling your shareholders that your own personal feelings about your assets are more important than their money. And they won't invest with you if you do that."
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