Members within the New York Knicks organization seemed to misunderstand a simple “troll”. On Sunday, November 24th, during a terrible loss at MSG by the Knicks at the hand of the short-handed Brooklyn Nets, former NBA player Richard Jefferson got bored and decides to troll the Knicks live during a broadcast. Richard Jefferson stated the following during the broadcast:
“I refused to play for the Knicks. Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin — they don’t really care. Me — I was the one person that said, ‘Knicks? No. I’ll retire.’ That’s why I retired. They were the one team that offered me a job, and I decided to retire. It’s true. I decided to retire instead of playing for the Knicks. … I just knew it was time. When the Knicks were looking for me to play for them, I knew my time in this league was over.â€
Richard Jefferson was having a good time poking at the New York Knicks organization.
No big deal right? As for the Knicks, they’ll just ignore the troll, especially since what was said by Jefferson wasn’t true right? Nope, of course, members within the New York Knicks organization, or should I say, James Dolan, decided to denounce the joke made by Jefferson during the broadcast.
The Official Knicks Public Relations twitter page decides to make an effort to clarify a joke that has no truth to it instead of just ignoring it altogether. Trying to clarify the joke actually did more harm than good. Others are now laughing at an organization that currently seems equivalently focused on correcting jokes and getting victories. LeBron James even got a laugh out of the situation on Twitter.
James Dolan did not have to correct a troll. It’s a simple joke. Were the Knicks correct when clarifying Jefferson’s joke? Technically yes, however, the franchise looked extremely petty and this doesn’t bode well in terms of gaining respect around the league under James Dolan’s watch.