Best of Interviews on WFAN: James Dolan, Mike Breen, Joe Benigno

**Craig Carton** (0:01)
Welcome back to The Carton Show. On January 5th, 2026, a young man came into our studio as our first guest ever of The Carton Show at Big Mac. And he said, I think this team is good enough to win a championship. We're not going after Yannis. I think there's enough talent right here, right now. We're winning a championship. And then a week and a half ago, that same young man came into the studio and said, not only are we winning tonight's game at the Garden, we're winning a championship. That young man is Jim Dolan, who once again joins us in studio as a champion.
Jim, good afternoon and congratulations on your first championship as the owner of the New York Knicks.

**James Dolan** (0:43)
Was I right about that game? I was wrong about that game.

**Craig Carton** (0:45)
You were wrong for about an hour and a half. And then you were right for about 10 minutes.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:49)
Yeah, no, it was game four, the comeback.

**James Dolan** (0:50)
That was game four. I wanted to get three, right?

**Craig Carton** (0:54)
The 29-point comeback.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:55)
That's the game. We have to go back a while to find you being wrong. So don't worry about it.

**Craig Carton** (0:59)
So let's go to your perspective. You said baseline. I think you're on the other baseline, if I'm not mistaken.
When OG has the tip-in, give me your perspective as that play is unfolding. Down by one.

**James Dolan** (1:13)
But that wasn't just that one play.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:15)
Yeah.

**Craig Carton** (1:16)
Right.

**James Dolan** (1:16)
I mean, it was that entire, like, six or seven minutes was like, you know, I mean, we were, I mean, everybody felt this. We were down so much, you know, when you're down that much, you, in your head, you start going through, well, you know, how we're going to get better, what, how we're going to, we're still going to win the series and all this when you're, you know, Down to 29, it's hard to come back from that.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:40)
You're like, oh, it's 2-2, it's not over.

**James Dolan** (1:42)
But in the back of your head, behind all that conversation is, but we're still not cemented over. It's not, right?

**Craig Carton** (1:51)
You start playing a math game.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:52)
If we cut it to this number, right, give me to 15 by the fourth quarter.

**James Dolan** (1:57)
Exactly, right. And, you know, I mean, you just, well, you know, we have to do everything perfect. For sure. For that period of time.
And each play that came up, each defensive play, each offensive play you're looking at, go, we have to do this perfectly, right? And they just did.

**Craig Carton** (2:16)
They did. And then fast forward, obviously, go back to San Antonio, Spurs, much like the Cavs before them and the Sixers, still thought they were the better team, thought they outplayed you guys, and maybe they did for a portion of the series. But now in the fourth quarter, down 16, people are going to forget that in the second half, which is nothing compared to down 29, obviously.

**James Dolan** (2:37)
No, it's not.

**Craig Carton** (2:37)
So I assume down 16 in game five, you're thinking to yourself, been here, done that, we're good still or no? Yeah.

**James Dolan** (2:47)
Well, I mean, the for the game, it was too early. Down 16 was not, you know, for this team. Not the the but when we got to the beginning of the fourth quarter, we were only down five. I'm like, oh, that's not enough.

**Craig Carton** (3:02)
You're right. You're right. So obviously a lot to talk to you about. But look, I don't know that your life changes because of it. But the way you perceive changes because of it, because now you're a champion. And as you said in that speech on April 3rd, which has now gone viral, which we'll get to in a second, did you wake up feeling differently? Is there a monkey off your back? You were maligned in this town. You know that. You were not the most well-liked owner in this town for a long period of time. And the Knicks had a long time of having trouble getting out of their own way.
How is it different for you now walking the streets of New York and going to the places you go as a champion?

**James Dolan** (3:41)
I can't walk the streets of New York now.
In a good way. Right. Both times I couldn't walk the streets. We were really doing bad. It was hard to walk the streets. Now we're really doing good. It's still hard to walk the streets.