Knicks owner James Dolan seeks clearer accounting of NBA's finances - ESPN

In a continuation of criticism of the league office over the better part of two years, New York Knicks owner James Dolan has called for a resolution to be voted on at this month's Board of Governors meetings that asks for clearer accounting of the league's finances, according to a letter that was received by the league office and the rest of the Board of Governors.

Dolan, who said ahead of the September meeting that he wouldn't be voting on the 2024-25 budget, or the election of a new chair of the Board of Governors, laid out in the letter, which was obtained by ESPN, why he believes the NBA needs to add a resolution to its agenda for this month's meeting as part of an ongoing attempt to seek out «increased financial transparency and operating efficiency.»

The proposed resolution would begin with the 2025-26 NBA fiscal year, and would ask the league to both «adopt a zero-based method of budgeting operating costs, headcount, and capital expenditures for all League and Affiliate League operations» and «adopt a process to present and distribute the League's annual proposed budgets inclusive of all underlying account detail summarized by department and type of expense, headcount, and fully allocated costs against each League revenue stream.»

In the letter — co-signed by both Dolan and the team's alternate governor, Madison Square Garden chief operating officer Jamaal Lesane — the Knicks detail how the league's operating budget rose nearly 8% from the year before, and pointed out specific increases in a variety of areas, as well as an increase in «League office headcount» by over 800 people.

«Despite the League's swelling costs and headcount, the budget materials provided by the League during its annual September budget