Dolan asked Knicks to sacrifice for title in April speech - ESPN

New York Knicks owner James Dolan delivered an impassioned speech in front of his team before the playoffs, imploring the players to seize the opportunity and asking that they make certain sacrifices to achieve their goal of winning a championship.

The video, released Monday on the podcast «Roommates Show» hosted by Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, was from April 3, with five games left in the regular season. The Knicks won the next four regular-season games before sitting their starters for the last game. They then went 16-3 in the playoffs, including a record-13-game winning streak, and beat the San Antonio Spurs in five games for their first title since 1973.

«This team can win it all,» Dolan said, holding a piece of paper that looked like notes for a prepared speech. «I don't know if you understand what it would mean for you to win the championship this year.… It would be life-changing for all of you.

»It will stick with you for the rest of your lives, and if you don't win it, you'll be thinking about it the rest of your lives, and so will I."

Dolan addressed the firing of coach Tom Thibodeau and hiring of Mike Brown, who was sitting nearby. Dolan credited Thibodeau, as he had done publicly in early January on a New York radio show, but stood behind the coaching change. Dolan said he and team president Leon Rose believed the Knicks' roster was good enough to win.

«So we thought that you needed a coach that would pull you together, that would have you play as a team,» Dolan said. «And although it's not been perfect, but we believe that together, a joint effort would be better for the team that would give us a shot at winning a championship rather than relying on one person's opinion, and that's the team that we have now.»