In April, investigative sports journalist Pablo Torre teamed up with Wired's Noah Schactman to drop a bombshell report: New York Knicks owner James Dolan was allegedly using Madison Square Garden's security team to monitor online activity of his critics—and not just local ones, but people across the country.
"There's this one teenager in Colorado, who said something on Twitter, and [Madison Square Garden chief security officer John C. Eversole] and the Madison Square Garden security staff went into freak out mode, and they actually called the local cops on this kid," Schactman revealed on Pablo Torre Finds Out.
The report painted a picture of a surveillance operation that goes far beyond typical security measures. According to sources, Dolan's team tracks social media posts, identifies critics, and in some cases, escalates to law enforcement—even targeting a 14-year-old for a single tweet.
But the story didn't end there. On Friday's episode, Torre played a modulated recording of an anonymous Knicks beat reporter who claims to have experienced Dolan's surveillance firsthand. The reporter's account is chilling.
"A few years back, I had a report, and then I get a call from the Knicks shortly after that. 'I know who your source is.' And I'm like, 'I don't play guess-the-source,' and the person is like, 'I know this is your source.'"
The reporter pressed for answers, asking how the Knicks could possibly know about a private conversation. "I said, 'You know what this conversation was? I was just offering condolences on the death in his family.' And the person said to me, 'Would you have offered your condolences to that person if he wasn't your source?' I said, 'Yes! That's what being a human being is!'"
The response from the Knicks? A simple, ominous line: "You know us. We're always watching."
This isn't the first time Dolan's behavior has raised eyebrows. Former ESPN host Max Kellerman recently called for the NBA to oust him from the league, citing a pattern of questionable conduct. For Knicks fans, the off-court drama is becoming just as hard to ignore as the team's on-court performance.