The Knicks championship miraculously calms the feud between James Dolan and Spike Lee
You did the right thing.
The Knicks’ championship run appears to be ending a long-running feud between Madison Square Garden manager James Dolan and the team’s most famous fan, Spike Lee.
Dolan and the “Do the Right Thing” director have had a contentious relationship in the past, with Lee claiming in 2020 that the billionaire was “bullying” her.
But we’re told Dolan went out of his way to make sure Lee wasn’t left out of the team’s celebrations after Cleveland’s Game 4 victory, which put them in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
We are told that after the final buzzer, orange tape was placed on the field as the team was presented with the Eastern Conference Championship trophy.
But we hear when Dolan saw Lee standing outside the venue, he walked over and brought the Oscar winner to the little orange strip.
The pictures show the couple enjoying each other in the afterglow of the win.
A spokesperson for Dolan confirms, “There was a scene taped by players and their families, people from the Knicks front office” and other VIPs.
“Jim suggested Spike Lee come in and invited him to join the celebration and enjoy the historic victory,” a spokesperson told Page Six.
Other celebrities in the show include Timothee Chalamet and girlfriend Kylie Jenner, Ben Stiller, Tracy Morgan, Fat Joe, Patrick Ewing and Walt “Clyde” Frazier.
A feud between Dolan and Lee erupted in 2020 after Lee was stopped by media and staff at the West 33rd Street entrance and asked to enter the VIP entrance. Lee said he’s been using the department for 30 years and told ESPN’s “First Take,” “I’m haunted by James Dolan. I don’t know why.”
A spokesman for the Knicks at the time said he had been asked several times not to use that door.
“The idea that Spike Lee is a victim because we repeatedly asked him not to use our staff entrance and instead use the dedicated VIP entrance — used by all other celebrities entering the Garden — is ludicrous,” a Knicks spokesman said at the time.
Lee responded, “What’s funny is how the Knicks are the laughing stock of the league. This media talk, which pisses me off, is a blatant, bald-faced lie. . . . That they’ve repeatedly asked me not to use the employee entrance. That’s a lie.”
The couple were photographed shortly after shaking hands in the game, which Lee called a “set-up photo op.” He also said he wants the billionaire to sell the team.
Lee also criticized Dolan for his handling of the incident in which Charles Oakley was dragged off the field and arrested after an altercation with MSG security at a game on Feb. 8, 2017. Oakley was banned.
