GARDEN OF WAR

Narrow-minded history of MSG goes way back

GIVEN Jim Dolan’s history as Madison Square Garden’s King-by-Inheritance, suggesting that he learn from history is likely far too late.

But we will remind him how Harry Truman suffered name-callers: “I don’t care what they call me, as long as it isn’t true.” And then he went back to being president.

Dolan’s heavy-handed, selfish edict that he’ll counter some harsh name-calling by WFAN’s Maggie Gray by banning all Garden personnel — players, coaches — from being interviewed on the station and disallow business between the parties, demonstrates his sense that he not only runs the Garden, he is the Garden.

And he’s entitled to that entitlement, as his big-ticket NHL and NBA teams have established the record for most rebuilding seasons, surpassing the Byzantine Empire, which lost four straight wars, all as home favorites, during the 7th Century. But in thin defense of Dolan, he isn’t the first Garden boss to make such a counter-productive decision. On the night of Jan. 16, 1991, B.C. (Before Cablevision), the Garden and its teams belonged to Paramount, when the 15-19 Knicks were home vs. the 11-23 Timberwolves. As patrons entered, there was something serious in the air: the scent of war. President Bush the Elder shortly would address the nation, likely to declare that the U.S. is at war with Iraq, aka, the Persian Gulf War. But as patrons gathered at Garden restaurants, bars, and food-and-drink concession areas in eager pursuit of the latest info on Garden TVs, the TVs were all tuned to MSG Network’s Knicks coverage.

And we’ve long been told by those who knew, on orders from Garden president Dick Evans, those TVs were to remain on MSG. The Garden’s customers arrived to watch a basketball game and, damn it, that’s all they were entitled to watch.

This bizarre edict was unknown to MSG Network boss Bob Gutkowski, who was attending a cable TV convention in New Orleans. His directive to the network was to break into the T’wolves-Knicks to televise the president’s address to the nation.

After all, that convention in New Orleans had come to a halt and snapped to attention to hear and see Bush’s declaration of war. According to up-close-and-personal personnel, when Evans discovered MSG Network briefly placed such breaking news above the Knicks’ game, he was furious, incensed that MSG Network subscribers learned, as it happened, that the U.S. was at war. In time, Evans let it go, perhaps because he came to realize his newsblackout decree was absurd, or because the president’s declaration of war might have made more compelling TV than the Knicks’ loss to the second-year Timberwolves. But Evans was lucky. Given another time in history, he would have ensured that Knicks fans and patrons always remembered the day Pearl Harbor was bombed as Dec. 8, 1941.