New York City is many things, the center of the universe, the big apple, the city that never sleeps, the greatest city in the world, but when it comes to sports New York City is best known for one thing above all else, as THE MECCA of basketball. Basketball has always been central to the heart and soul of New York City, Basketball is the city's game. Walk around New York City, it does not mater what borough you are in Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, or even Staten Island for god's sake and there is an 100% chance that you will be able to find a basketball court within a quarter of a mile of you, heck even a tenth of a mile, in fact even probably a fifth of a mile where you can lace up your kicks and just shoot some hoops or play some pick up. Basketball is the official language of New York City. It unites all people black, white, latino, jewish, christian, muslim, hindu and everyone else there is as well. It does not matter where your ethnic, religious, or political, belief lies if you're a New Yorker you speak the language of hoops and can overlook any differences to be united with all others who do so as well. We are the city that invented 3 on 3s 4 on 4s, 5 on 5s, street ball, shoot for ball, takebacks every time, winner keeps possesion, loser gets possesion, check it up at the top of the key. We are waking up on summer mornings, getting to the park when the sun rises and not leaving till it sets. We are heading to the park in the bitter cold of winter just to work on that bank shot. We are the city with the Cage, We are Rucker Park, where the greatest to ever play the game have come down to play the game the way they grew up playing it. We brought you streetball legends, the Goat, The Hawk, The Fly, The Destroyer, Pee Wee, Skip to My Lou, Escalade, these guys didn't come from other cities they came from us. We brought you Kareem, Dr. J, Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin, Kenny The Jet, Tiny Archibald, Bob Cousy, Starbury, Bernard King, Carmelo Anthony, in short WE ARE BASKETBALL. And because we are basketball we will not stand for what is going on anymore. At the center of the basketball religion and passion of this city stands our very own professional team, the New York Knicks. Yeah the Yankees will always be the Yankees, the team with the interlocking NY, the winningest team in American professional sports, but no team encaptures the passion of New Yorkers like the Knicks because no sport captures are passion like basketball. The Knicks are at the heart of New York, they have always been something we can take immense pride in even though they haven't won a championship since the days of Willis, Earl the Pearl, and Clyde the Knicks always showcased our toughness and tremendous pride that we have as New Yorkers. They always played tough defense, good team offense, and gave us a team we could be proud of. Yeah maybe we'd have a few more championships if we didn't have to deal with the Celtics, The Bad-Boy Pistons, and the MJ Bulls but we were still a contender, we were still New York. However lately that has not been the case. The past 15 years of New York basketball has been the darkest days the city has ever seen. It can be said that there are plenty of reasons for this but at the heart of it all lies one main one and one main one only....JAMES DOLAN. James Dolan is not only the worst owner that the Knicks have ever had, he is one of the worst owners in the history of professional sports. James Dolan has shown incompetnence in every way shape and form. He has hired the worst people possible to run the franchise and when finally he caught a break and found the right ones he continued to get in their way until they either quit or were fired. SCOTT LAYDEN...WAY TO RUIN THE TEAMS OF 90s THAT WE ALL LOVED, RUNNING DONNIE WALSH OUT OF TOWN??!?! HOW'S HE DOING IN INDIANA, FIRING GLEN GRUNWALD AFTER THE ONLY 50 WIN SEASON FULLY IN THIS MILLENIUM, ISIAH?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! IM STILL TRYING TO GET OVER HIM. He has signed the wrong players, players who aren't championship players, and not only has he signed them, he has signed them to deals that are so outrageously terrible they cripple the team for years to come. ALLAN HOUSTON I LOVE HIM BUT 6 YEARS 100 MILLION?!?! THATS LEBRON MONEY!!!! TAKING ONTHE WHOLE STEPHON MARBURY CONTRACT FROM THE SUNS YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!! JEROME JAMES 5 YEARS 30 MILLION ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!? EDDY CURRY 6 YEARS 60 MILLION IS THAT A JOKE?!?!?! JR 4 YEARS 24 MILLION EVEN THOUGH HE IS JR SMITH AND NEEDED SURGERY!?!?! AMARE.....DO I EVEN HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING?!?!?! USING THE ONE AMNESTY WE RECEIVED IN THE NEW CBA ON CHAUNCEY BILLUPS OVER AMARE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! GOD ALMIGHTY PLEASE HELP US!!!!! We continue to lose potentially very high draft picks that could be converted into players of real value to dumb trades because Dolan does not understand the concept of building up a championship team, he always needs to force his hand and run us all the way back into the ground. This year the best draft class since Lebron, Melo, Wade, and Bosh we SUCK!!!...and yet we don't have a first round pick HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSILE!?!?! NO CHANCE AT EMBID! NO CHANCE AT WIGGINS! NO CHANCE AT RANDLE! AND WORST OF ALL NO CHANCE AT JABARI!!! This man hired Larry Brown one of the all time great NBA Coaches and fully got in the way of letting him do his job, this man overpaid Mike D'Antoni the absolute wrong man for the job, this man forced out the beloved Jeff Van Gundy before he had his rightful chance to bring us the championship we have been waiting so long for, and worst of all this man let ISIAH THOMAS COACH OUR TEAM!! I mean how could you possibly despise Lebron anymore for not coming to the Knicks how could you seriously imagine a man so driven by winning championships would ever want to consider playing for this guy?!?!?! This past summer he even hired Mckinsey and Co a high-end mega corporate consulting firm to evaluate the Knicks to show him what they thought the best route to take to a championship would be. ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY KIDDING ME?!?!?! A CORPORATE CONSULTING FIRM TO SHOW YOU HOW TO RUN A BASKETBALL TEAM?!?!?!? WOULD THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA EVER HIRE CARMELO ANTHONY FOR ADVICE ON HOW BEST TO PERFORM BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH SYMPHONY WHAT KIND OF PATHETIC MOCKERY OF A JOKE IS THAT?!?!? And yet through it all we continue to put up with it. We continue to pay for our ridiculously overpriced seats to sell out the Temple of Basketball itself Madison Square Garden and while were there we continue to pay for our overpriced merchandise and overpriced concessions because as New Yorkers we really do bleed basketball and through it all we will always love our New York Knickerbockers but we can simply not accept this anymore. Us New Yorkers can support a loser during tough times but we cannot support the abominable lack of ownership, management, effort and lack of passion that these Knicks have showed and that has been a recurring theme of the James Dolan era. This has been going on for too long and I for one cannot stand it anymore and I hope you all feel the same way. I want my kids and their kids to grow up in times with moments like the LJ 4 point play, Spike and Reggie Millers playoff battles, the miracle 99 run to the finals, Patrick Ewing in game 7 against the Pacers in 94, and Starks' Dunk over Jordan that will not happen with the current ownership we have and as New Yorkers and fans we are the heart and soul of the New Yor Knickerbockers basketball franchise. While we will never play a minute for the team, never step on the court, and never grab a rebound or score a basket make no mistake about it the Knicks as a professional sports franchise cannot survive and function without our support, WE KEEP THEM GOING! Which is why we haveout of that pure, genuine love that we have for our team we have to finally stand our ground and say enough is enough and that is what this petition aims to accomplish. Make no mistake about it do I really believe there is a high chance that we can get the NBA to force James Dolan to sell the team with a petition? Not so much. HOWEVER I DO BELIEVE WE CAN SERIOUSLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE. New York is THE BIGGEST MARKET IN THE NBA and the nba relies on its fans to make money. Its tremendous increase in fans since Michael Jordan came into the league is the reason for its tremendous increase in profits and expansion around the world into now being watched in so many different countires. All of this shows and proves that it is a lot better for the NBA AS A MONEY-MAKING ENTERPRISE WHEN THE NEW YORK KNICKS ARE A GOOD COMPETITIVE, CHAMPIONSHIP CALIBER BASKETBALL FRANCHISE. By signing this petition you are showing that you AS A FAN OF THE NEW YORK KNICKS will not stand for the ownership that James Dolan has been carrying on by not attending another game and putting another dollar of revenue from tickets, merchandise, and conccessions into James Dolan's undeserving pockets and demanding change either by the NBA forcing James Dolan to sell the team or even simply by being forced to take a step back and take a more hands off approach (much more realistic). By getting large numbers on this petition we are making a statement to Adam Silver and the rest of the NBA that we as New Yorkers will not tolerate what is going with our Knicks and that we demand change and if that succeeds, it will not be able to ignored. This is a crucial time coming up for the Knicks over these next 2-3 years, it will be a turning point for the future of the organization either for better or for worse so please sign this petiton, share it with everyone you know, send it to all your friends and family because I would like to see the NBA Championship return to its rightful home in New York City sometime soon and I'm sure you all would too.