The Knicks were issued an edict by owner James Dolan this offseason: win a title, or else. Since he’s the owner and writes the paychecks, the Knicks aren’t very comfortable heading into their game tonight against visiting Charlotte at just 1-and-2 through their first three games. But Dolan isn’t ornery about just his team. He’s instructed the Knicks City Dancers to, um, stop dancing.
UPDATE: Marc Berman of the New York Post has a source (it’s the Knicks’ PR) who claims the Knicks City Dancers aren’t going anywhere. They are, however, being rebranded to make the routines more “classy.”
“We’re in the process of a rebranding of the Knicks City Dancers,” the source said. “We’re looking at making them bigger and better so they’re not just regular cheerleaders.” Noted.
Frank Isola, who broke the original story for the New York Daily News, responded on Twitter in his usual fashion:
The best is Berman of the Post says a source claims the Knicks City Dancers are being rebranded and will be "bigger." I actually like that.
— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) November 5, 2013
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By "rebranding" does that mean doing something other than throwing t-shirts. They've performed one routine in 2 games; a tap dancing number
— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) November 5, 2013
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Ya think? RT@netw3rk: I love how obvious it is that Knicks PR called Berman to refute the Knicks City Dancers story.
— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) November 5, 2013
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#NYBeefWriters, now with dancing!
— Seth Rosenthal (@seth_rosenthal) November 5, 2013
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EARLIER: A source tells New York Daily News Knicks beat reporter Frank Isola that Dolan has ordered the Knicks dancers to stop performing their routines:
Being the Knicks coach under Dolan has never been a walk in the park, but it’s especially difficult now with Dolan expecting a championship. Perhaps the only group that has it worse than Woodson’s staff is — and I can’t believe I’m typing this — the Knicks City Dancers.
Dolan has become such a hands-on owner — figuratively speaking — that, according to a source, he doesn’t want the dancers dancing. Crazy, right? The same guy who wanted creative input on the dancers’ outfits (and he’s good at it) apparently ordered that the girls’ roles be reduced to mostly throwing T-shirts into the crowd.
They performed maybe one routine on Sunday.
Why? No one seems to know, except the standard answer is usually “that’s Dolan.”
And this is where I draw the line. Be upset all you want at the players for underperforming. But the dancers?
The KCD’s have been the model of fitness, enthusiasm and execution for two decades. The Knicks? They’ve had one good season out of the last 13.
This is remarkable if only because no one can figure out why Lord Dolan would instruct his dance team to stop dancing. It would be like if he asked his players to stop playing basketball and focus more on fan interactions, and manning the T-Shirt Cannon. The KCD’s are talented dancers, and brainy, too!
Let the Knicks City Dancers, dance, Dolan. If the team struggles, their dancing will be the only oasis in a desert of in-fighting and paranoid players as they try to win while simultaneously looking over their shoulders, never quite sure when Dolan will demand that new GM Steve Mills trade them.
Set the Knicks City Dancers free! We should get a petition going because as Dime‘s co-founder told us this morning, “You can yell at whoever you want, but when you take the Knicks City Dancers away from us, that’s when I have a problem with you.” Amen.
Why did Dolan tell his dancers to stop dancing?
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