Hour 4: Jim Dolan on the Viral Speech That Sparked the Knicks’ Championship

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
All right, everybody, 5.13.
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's good enough to win a championship. We're not going after Yannis. I think there's enough town 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.

**Jim Dolan** (0:44)
Was I right about that game? I was wrong about that game.

**Craig Carton** (0:47)
You were wrong for about an hour and a half, and then you were right for about 10 minutes.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:50)
Yeah, no, it was game four, the comeback.

**Jim Dolan** (0:52)
That was game four, right? That was game three, right?

**Craig Carton** (0:55)
The 29-point comeback. That's the game.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:57)
We have to go back a while to find you being wrong, so don't worry about it.

**Craig Carton** (1:01)
So let's go your perspective. You sit 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.

**Jim Dolan** (1:14)
But that wasn't just that one play.

**Craig Carton** (1:17)
Yeah. Right.

**Jim Dolan** (1:17)
I mean, it was that entire like six or seven minutes like, you know, we were, everybody felt this. We were down so much. You know, when you're down that much, in your head, you start going through, well, you know, how we're going to get better, how we're still going to win the series and all this when you're, you know...

**Craig Carton** (1:39)
Down to 29, it's hard to come back from that.

**Jim Dolan** (1:41)
Right.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:41)
Like, it's two-two, it's not over.

**Jim Dolan** (1:43)
But in the back of your head, behind all that conversation is, but it's still not cemented over.

**Craig Carton** (1:50)
It's not...

**Jim Dolan** (1:51)
Right.

**Craig Carton** (1:52)
You start playing a math game. If we can cut it to this number...

**Jim Dolan** (1:55)
Right.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:56)
Give me the 15 by the fourth quarter.

**Jim Dolan** (1:58)
Exactly. Right. And, you know, I mean, you just, well, you know, we have to do everything perfect. For sure. Right. For that period of time.
And each play that came up, each defensive play, each offensive play you're looking at, you go, we have to do this perfectly. Right. And they just did.

**Craig Carton** (2:18)
They did. And then, fast forward, obviously, you 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.

**Jim Dolan** (2:38)
No, it's not.

**Craig Carton** (2:39)
So I assume down 16 in game five, you're thinking to yourself, been here, done that, we're good still or no? Yeah.

**Jim Dolan** (2:48)
Well, I mean, the for the game, it was too early. Down 16 was not, you know, for this team. I mean, 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** (3:04)
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 trying to, 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?

**Jim Dolan** (3:42)
Well, I can't walk the streets of New York now.

**Craig Carton** (3:44)
In a good way.