National Basketball Association

Dolan: I shouldn't have responded to fan's 'hateful' email

Published Feb. 14, 2015 6:42 a.m. ET

foxsports

New York Knicks owner James Dolan would like a do-over.

The embattled Knicks owner said at a charity event Friday that he shouldn't have responded to the "hateful" email he received from a longtime fan of the team earlier this month.

"Here's what happened. I got sent a bad, hateful email. . . . I get emails all the time, as I am sure you understand, and I generally don't respond to the bad ones," Dolan said. "This time it caught me at the wrong moment and I responded -- sort of a tit-for-tat with the fan. I know I shouldn't have done that but I did it anyway."

Dolan speculated in his email response that longtime fan Irving Bierman was an "alcoholic" and to "start rooting for the Nets because the Knicks don't want you."

Dolan said that Bierman's email upset him.

"It was a personal, hateful attack that he had sent, but basically it's over and it's All-Star Weekend," Dolan said. "I'd love if we all just sorta focused on that."

Dolan added that he doesn't receive solely negative emails.

"There is a message I want to say -- I actually got a whole bunch of emails that were really very nice," he said. "I did not get all hateful emails ... so if you have written me a nice email, encouraging, etc., even if it's a nice email about being upset about losing, you are actually going to hear back from me. If you wrote one of those other kind of emails, you are not going to hear back from me."

Dolan has been criticized for the way he's run the Knicks and their questionable moves on and off the court. The team is suffering through its worst start in franchise history, months after Dolan hired former Bulls and Lakers head coach Phil Jackson as team president.

The Knicks gave All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony a five-year, $124 million contract last summer, but Anthony has been slowed this season by multiple injuries, including knee problems that could cut short his season.