Banished from the Garden: When Knicks Fans Become Persona Non Grata
As the final seconds ticked off the clock in the Knicks’ playoff beatdown of the Celtics last May, Madison Square Garden erupted in a frenzy. Fans spilled onto Seventh Avenue chanting, hugging strangers, and daring to believe in a dream not realized since the mid-’90s: an Eastern Conference Finals at the Garden.
From his Manhattan apartment, personal injury lawyer Justin Brandel was glued to the screen, awash in texts from friends already plotting how to get tickets. Eight hundred dollars? A thousand? More? Didn’t matter—this was history.
For Brandel, though, there was a problem. It wasn’t money. It wasn’t time. It was James Dolan.
The Knicks owner, notorious for his thin skin and willingness to exile critics, had him on a list: legally barred from entering Madison Square Garden or any of Dolan’s venues.
The Dolan Ban
Charles Oakley made national headlines in 2017 after a high-profile altercation with security, but Oakley was just the most visible example of Dolan’s penchant for banishment. In recent years, an entire roster of lawyers has been added to the Garden’s “exclusion list,” many for no reason other than being employed at firms litigating against MSG Entertainment.
That list—long whispered about in New York legal circles—includes more than a thousand attorneys across 90 firms. Once your firm files suit against MSG, you don’t just risk losing in court—you risk losing access to Knicks games, Rangers games, Billy Joel concerts, even the Rockettes’ Christmas Spectacular.
Brandel already felt the sting. His parents once surprised him with orchestra-level seats to see John Oliver and Seth Meyers at the Beacon Theatre. Instead, he had to decline, knowing security would spot him before the opening act.
“It’s typical,” he says with a laugh. “The one time they splurge, I can’t go.”
Letters, Lists, and Facial Recognition
The ban begins with a FedEx letter from MSG’s general counsel. The language is dry but unmistakable: all attorneys at the firm are now prohibited from entering Dolan’s venues. Tickets? Revoked. Existing ones? Void.
What makes the practice remarkable isn’t just its breadth but its enforcement. Since 2018, MSG has used facial recognition technology not only for security but to identify banned individuals. Attorneys arriving for concerts, comedy shows, or games have been intercepted at turnstiles and escorted out, sometimes in front of clients, friends, or children.
The stories ripple across New York law firms like urban folklore. A woman bringing her daughter’s Girl Scout troop to Radio City. A lawyer pulled aside while taking his 7-year-old to a Rangers game. A Mariah Carey fan who never made it past the bag check.
“It’s not about security,” says attorney Joseph DePaola, who spent a year banned. “It’s about intimidation. It’s designed to chill litigation.”
A Policy Unlike Any Other
No other major U.S. sports venue has a comparable blacklist. Most corporations, even while embroiled in lawsuits, still welcome customers. Dolan takes the opposite tack—spending millions in legal battles to defend a practice that effectively weaponizes fandom against his critics.
To his supporters, it’s his right: the Garden is private property. Why should someone suing you get to sit courtside? But critics point out the selective enforcement: paralegals and support staff are fine; lawyers are not. And any notion that an attorney might “snoop” for evidence at a concert is laughable—not to mention professionally unethical.
“It’s petty,” says one lawyer. “And it’s unique. Which is why it’s dangerous.”
Pride in Exile
For some, though, being banned from MSG has become a badge of honor. After Dolan barred Oakley, a local designer sold six “BAN DOLAN” T-shirts. Years later, one of the buyers was removed from the Garden for wearing his shirt. Another attorney, whose brother confronted Dolan at a Devils game, soon received his own “indefinite” ban. He framed the letter.
Others sneak back in—hats low, masks on—risking the humiliation of being pulled out mid-event. For many, the temptation of Knicks playoff basketball or a bucket-list concert is too much to resist.
Waiting for the Letter
Eventually, most bans end the same way they begin: with another letter. Once litigation is resolved, lawyers are reinstated. “We are happy to welcome you back,” the Garden writes, as if nothing happened.
For Brandel, whose case has long been settled, that letter hasn’t arrived. For Dan Watts of Morgan & Morgan, it may never come—the firm has practically made a business out of suing MSG. For others, the wait is indefinite.
But the lesson lingers. As one lawyer told his son after being turned away from a Rangers game: “It doesn’t matter how much money someone has. What matters is how they treat people.”
And in Dolan’s Garden, that treatment can turn on a dime—from customer to trespasser, fan to exile.
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