The Knicks' Brand of Media Control

We've already told you a little bit about the Knicks and their zeal for controlling what anyone associated with the team (especially Isiah Thomas) says to the media. According to legend, the team has a policy that's known as "Tell Those Bastards Nothing". Top exec James Dolan, the policy's architect, was gracious enough yesterday to go over some of its finer points.

"We formulated the media policy because the nature of the New York market and media. All are competitive with each other, and that results in a fairly aggressive style of interviewing and writing," Dolan said. "You are all somewhat aggressive."

"The (beat) guys here who've been around long enough had situations - not going to blame it on the press, we didn't have a press policy - guys spoke up, which isn't necessarily wrong. They'd say things they didn't mean to communicate to their teammates. It would become elevated into a drama that was played out in the press. We had famous examples of that in the Van Gundy era."

When a writer said Thomas is smart enough to know what to say and know what not to say, Dolan answered, "He still needs to be consistent with what he says between you and his team, so he has someone with him."

Now, I can understand the logic behind doing everything in your power to protect your product in such a hostile environment, because dealing with the Peter Vesceys and Phil Mushnicks of the world on a daily basis can't be anyone's idea of a good time. That being said, one can't help but pose the following question: shouldn't more of the team's focus, energy, and resources be on what's taking place between the lines of the basketball court and not those of the city's newspapers?