Dolan luckily ditched dirty Harvey Co.
Kristaps Porzingis isn’t ready to commit to Friday’s final preseason game but the Knicks’ third-year forward, recovering from a sore right hip, is confident that he’ll be ready for next week’s season opener in Oklahoma City.
“I hope to play the last game and be ready for the season,” Porzingis said. “I’m like a lizard. I recover quickly.”
Porzingis sat out Wednesday’s practice after missing Monday’s home exhibition loss to the Houston Rockets. He insists that doctors have told him the injury
As Hollywood’s A-list celebrities rush to publicly distance themselves from disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, two NBA owners, the Knicks’ James Dolan and Milwaukee’s Marc Lasry, are also navigating their way past one of the industry’s biggest scandal in decades.
Lasry quickly resigned from the board of the Weinstein Company last week in the wake of reports in the New York Times, and later the New Yorker magazine, detailing Weinstein’s long history of alleged sexual assault on women.
Lasry had been a board member for just 16 months after having replaced Dolan, the Madison Square Garden Chairman, who served less than a year.
When Dolan stepped down, both he and Weinstein said the split was amicable and even referred to each other as close “friends” in separate written statements.
Dolan, the front man for the blues band JD and The Straight Shot, enjoys socializing with musicians and movie stars and no producer had better connections to that world than Weinstein.
Their relationship included business ventures, organizing charity events, attending political fundraisers and even Hollywood award shows together. However, there was also a sinister side to Weinstein that was uncovered last week and has subsequently rocked the entertainment community.
The stunning exposés of Weinstein’s treatment of women read like something out of a sleazy movie script and have led to a spectacular fall for one of Hollywood’s most influential power brokers.
Actors with strong ties to Weinstein, including George Clooney, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, have denounced the embattled mogul. Academy Award-winning actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, as well as Rosanna Arquette, all claim to have been victims of Weinstein’s sexual harassment.
Neither Dolan nor Lasry has addressed the controversy at this time. Calls to Dolan’s publicist were not returned.
A person close to Dolan claims he has not spoken with Weinstein “in more than year.” However, a business associate of both Dolan and Weinstein insists that the two, along with Irving Azoff, the renowned Eagles manager who brokered the Phil Jackson deal with the Knicks and remains a powerful presence inside MSG, remain cordial.
There is certainly a long, documented history between Dolan and Weinstein, two prominent New Yorkers with considerable political clout. On at least two occasions, Weinstein invited Dolan to sit at his table during the Golden Globe Awards. Dolan and Weinstein organized the Concert for New York following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the “12-12-12” benefit concert, which raised approximately $50 million for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Dolan was also an investor in Weinstein’s Broadway show “Finding Neverland,” and it was Weinstein who consulted Dolan on a holiday show at Radio City Music Hall, which is a Dolan property.
Diane Paulus, the artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., and an artistic advisor hired by Dolan and Weinstein told Deadline Hollywood in an email, “while I never experienced this side of Harvey in my working relationship with him, I am appalled by his behavior and I stand strongly with of all the women who have had the courage to come forward.”
The circumstances surrounding Dolan’s resignation from Weinstein’s company in June 2016 seem plausible. A spokesperson for Dolan said at the time that Dolan had too many business, family and music commitments to serve on the board.
“The company is in good shape,” Dolan said 16 months ago. “Harvey and Bob (Weinstein) remain close personal friends, and I will continue to be supportive in any way I can. I wish my fellow board members continued success.”
Harvey Weinstein released his own statement after Dolan resigned, saying “Jim Dolan is one of my and Bob’s best friends. His insight into business has led us to grow an unbelievably successful TV division. He was the biggest impetus, years ago, for us getting into TV in a big way — we owe him for that. I appreciate all that Jim has done for the company.”
In the same statement, the Weinsteins announced that another NBA owner, Lasry, was replacing Dolan. Lasry, a billion-dollar hedge fund manager and one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest financial supporters, is a principle owner of the Bucks along with Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan.