Inside MSG consulting drama
Former Knicks assistant hated having McKinsey with team
The 2013-14 Knicks were the franchise's worst team in a few years, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010. But it would also end up being a high-water mark, as the Knicks haven't touched 37-45 since.
The season started with the training-camp firing of GM Glen Grunwald. Owner James Dolan said at the time that the firing was “about an initiative I have going on with both teams that I hired McKinsey & Company for.”
McKinsey, a consulting firm, is better known for charging millions of dollars to “streamline” companies by firing employees whose salaries total thousands of dollars than rebuilding sports franchises.
Dolan said the initiative was to “reprocess” the Knicks and the Rangers, and that the consulting firm explicitly led to Grunwald's firing: “I hired McKinsey in the summer, and Glen is more of a ‘classic' GM, and he just wasn't the guy to lead this initiative for the team.”
One former Knicks assistant shed some light Friday on what exactly it was like having McKinsey with the team. Dave Hopla spoke to SNY, saying “We got so fed up with them.”
The consulting firm made some good recommendations — maybe don't trade so many first round picks — although, hilariously, even that one ended with the Knicks not trading for Kyle Lowry. Credit McKinsey for helping Knick tormentor Masai Ujiri to avoid what would have been the one major misstep of his career.
But Hopla also detailed some shakier ones to Ian Begley. “The players were like, ‘Why aren't we watching film?'” The coaches would respond, “the McKinsey group told us.” Hopla also says the coaches had to fill out tons of paperwork evaluating players, a process familiar to anyone whose workspace has been invaded by consultants. “I told them if we took all that time writing reports and we actually worked the players out, we would have made the playoffs.”
That might not be true, but the effect Hopla describes is, again, familiar to anyone convinced that a consulting firm has told their bosses to fire them. “The players started asking who they were,” according to Hopla. “They were worried about maybe they were writing reports about them. They were paranoid.”
The 2013 initiative wasn't even McKinsey's first goround at MSG. Dolan told New York magazine in 2005 that “We had McKinsey in here; they couldn't figure it out.” Apparently that didn't stop Dolan from giving the consultants a second chance.
Hopla's comments are a rare insight into a notoriously tight-lipped organization and industry. McKinsey, most notorious in 2019 for its work with dictators, has been expanding its operations into sports. The Athletic reported in July that the Astros had given the firm free reign to observe the team. Somehow, those consultants came up with the genius idea that they should trade prospects for a star starting pitcher.