Big3 Basketball Causes A Stir With Racially Charged Ad Against Madison Square Garden Head James Dolan

March 14, 2020 3:55pm

The Big3 basketball league has taken aim at James Dolan, the executive chairman and CEO of The Madison Square Garden Company and exec chair of MSG Networks, better known as the man who owns the New York Knicks.

The Big3, owned by Ice Cube and entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz, issued a racially charged attack ad on Dolan, who has been under fire for ugly confrontations with director Spike Lee and former New York Knicks player Charles Oakley.

The ad, used to promote a June 27 outdoor festival at Flushing Meadows in New York, quotes Oakley (“It’s a plantation over there”) and Lee (“If you want to arrest me like Oakley, go ahead”), implying that Dolan treats his employees and fans like vassals.

Under the Oakley and Lee quotations was a message: “Players are not property. The fans are our guests.’’

So far, neither MSG or the Big3 have commented on the ad.

Oakley sued Dolan and MSG for defamation, battery, false imprisonment and violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act after a confrontation at the Garden. He was banned from the Garden for a year and the lawsuit was dismissed

Lee, a longtime New York Knicks superfan, was in a confrontation over which entrance to his courtside seats he would use. Lee insisted on using the employees entrance, while the Garden security instead directed him to the media entrance.

Big3 Basketball Causes A Stir With Racially Charged Ad Against Madison Square Garden Head James Dolan.