Mamdani Finds a Foil Familiar to New Yorkers: James Dolan

For James Dolan, the famously irascible owner of the New York Knicks, his sudden feud with Mayor Zohran Mamdani came as little surprise to longtime Madison Square Garden Kremlinologists.

But its 0-to-60 escalation in bitterness — with Mr. Dolan describing Mr. Mamdani and his police commissioner, Jessica S. Tisch, as fake Knicks fans and hopelessly inexperienced city managers — struck some observers as self-defeating, especially with his team on the cusp of its first N.B.A. title in more than 50 years.

Mr. Dolan’s animus seems to stem from the city’s decision to maintain a strict security zone surrounding the Garden, at a time when jubilant Knicks fans want to celebrate their team, unfettered.

Hours before Game 4 on Wednesday night, Mr. Dolan went on WFAN, a sports radio station, ostensibly to warn ticket holders to arrive early because the Police Department was implementing a security perimeter around the Garden, much as Ms. Tisch had foreshadowed during a news conference on Monday.

But Mr. Dolan also used the opportunity to declare war on the mayor and Ms. Tisch.

Over a 29-minute radio interview, Mr. Dolan described the two city officials as callow incompetents who have no faith in their underlings’ ability to police the city, and have no true interest in the Knicks or in the New Yorkers eager to celebrate them.

“They have never managed anything like this before, and it’s like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches coming out the sides,” Mr. Dolan said.

If the moment was remarkable for its public disdain, it was also par for the course for Mr. Dolan. He has long nurtured his own unpopularity by, among other things, creating a facial recognition dragnet at his entertainment properties; picking feuds with Charles Oakley, the popular former Knicks player, as well as a mother accompanying her daughter’s Girl Scout troop to the “Christmas Spectacular”; and even hiring a private eye to tail a state official investigating whether the company had broken state beverage laws.

Mr. Dolan “seems hell bent on making sure the city has rancid vibes for the finals run,” Mr. Mamdani’s spokesman, Joe Calvello, said on social media Wednesday night.

Mr. Dolan began his fusillade of attacks on the mayor and Ms. Tisch Tuesday night with a news release calling them “New York City’s biggest party poopers” for implementing a “frozen zone” around the Garden for Game 4, just like the Police Department had for Monday’s game, which both the mayor and the president attended.

“We now know these restrictions were never about the president — it was just a convenient excuse to restrict how and when Knicks fans celebrate,” said the statement, which urged the city to alter its plans.

That release was followed by another on Wednesday, arguing that there was no need for a “police state” and criticizing the 1,000-person limitation for a ticketed watch party outside the Garden.

That release was followed by another that declared that the team was canceling the watch party because it was too small.

A spokeswoman for the Garden referred all questions to the N.B.A., which declined to comment.

A police spokeswoman said the behavior of some Knicks fans during Wednesday night’s game — including jumping on top of moving vehicles, throwing things at police officers, lighting fireworks in the middle of crowds and trying to turn over a taxi — proved the need for such strict security.

“Once again, there were large crowds of people who engaged in incredibly reckless and dangerous behavior last night both during and after the game,” according to a police statement. “This demonstrates exactly why the N.Y.P.D. has increased our presence in and around Madison Square Garden.”

The public spat between Mr. Dolan and Mr. Mamdani suggests Mr. Mamdani may have a harder time gaining access to the relatively low-cost house seats the Garden granted him and his colleagues for Monday’s game.

Theoretically, it could also complicate Mr. Dolan’s efforts to renew his operating permit with the city, which will come due in a few years, and his inevitable negotiations with the city surrounding the future of Penn Station.

Mr. Dolan “can’t help himself,” said Bill Cunningham, the former communications director for Michael R. Bloomberg, who also battled Mr. Dolan when he was mayor.

“He’s on the verge of being a hero in the city and he picks a fight with the mayor,” Mr. Cunningham said. “On the other hand, he’s not wrong. There’s no reason for them to have the same security zone for last night’s game for what they had when the president was there.”