The Dolan family sports curse is on the precipice of reaching a dubious milestone of failing to win a championship in 100 seasons of owning teams across 4 skilled leagues.
Cleveland Guardians owner Larry Dolan, whose underdog squad is battling the Latest York Yankees within the American League Division Series, has gone 22 years with no title since buying the franchise along with his son Paul in 2000.
It’s been even longer for Larry Dolan’s better-known nephew, James Dolan, who owns the Knicks and Rangers and used to own the Liberty of the WNBA. There have been 28 seasons of a disappointment for Knicks fans and 27 for the Rangers (factoring within the 2004-05 canceled season) because the blues-playing mogul bought the teams in 1995.
Add one other 22 empty seasons for the Liberty, which were founded in 1997 and sold after the 2018 season, and also you provide you with a losing legacy of campaigns that can stretch to a century if the team formerly often called the Indians is bounced from the playoffs.
No other sports team-owning family has come near this type of futility, sports industry sources said.
Paul Dolan’s Cleveland Guardians have gone 22 years with no title since he bought the franchise along with his father in 2000.Getty Images
The Bidwill family, the longtime owners of the NFL’s Cardinals, has gone 74 seasons with no title after winning it in 1947 when the team was in Chicago before moving the franchise to St. Louis after which Arizona.
There have been some heartbreaking near-misses for each branches of the Dolan clan. The Knicks made it to the 1999 NBA Finals and the Rangers lost within the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals. The Guardians were up three games to 1 on the Chicago Cubs within the 2016 World Series before losing three straight – including the decisive Game 7 in extra innings. Even the Liberty made 4 WNBA Finals appearances but got here up short.
Hoisting a championship trophy seemed inevitable when James Dolan bought the Knicks and Rangers in 1995. The yr before, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup – ending a 54-year drought – and the Pat Riley-coached Knicks fell just short within the NBA Finals to the Houston Rockets.
There have been 28 seasons of a disappointment for Knicks fans and 27 for the Rangers (factoring within the 2004-05 canceled season) since James Dolan bought the teams in 1995. Getty Images
James Dolan has been hurt by his impatience and meddling, especially with the Knicks, an MSG analyst told The Post.
Riley famously quit via fax to take over the Miami Heat after his bid to purchase a stake within the Knicks was rejected and the team was sold to Dolan, setting off a training carousel that has since seen 16 different leaders on the helm in 27 years. There have been 17 coaching changes in the primary 49 years after the franchise was established in 1946.
Dolan has also modified general managers 10 times during his tempestuous reign – in comparison with 12 GMs within the team’s first five many years – and spent wildly on free agents or traded for stars who turned out to be flops.
James Dolan has been hurt by his impatience and meddling, especially with the Knicks, an MSG analyst told The Post.Getty Images
“Knowing Jim, he desires to win badly. Possibly he wants it an excessive amount of,” the MSG analyst said.
Paul Dolan has been credited with having more sports savvy than James because the smaller-market Guardians don’t have the resources to pay high salaries, sources said. The franchise, which last won a World Series in 1948, has had five managers and 4 GMs under his 22-year stewardship.
There will not be that much cooperation between the cousins on the best way to run their teams, a family observer told The Post.
“Knowing Jim, he desires to win badly. Possibly he wants it an excessive amount of,” an analyst said.NBAE via Getty Images
The window for the Cleveland Dolans to interrupt the family jinx is closing. They sold a minority stake to David Blitzer this yr that offers him a path to purchase control of the team in five to 6 years.
To finish the longshot mission to fill the barren Dolan trophy case, the Guardians will first must get past recent AL home run king Aaron Judge and the Yankees within the best-of-five ALDS. That task got harder after losing the opening game Tuesday.
Cleveland must win three of the subsequent 4 games to maneuver on to a possible showdown with the powerhouse Houston Astros simply to get to the World Series – where the likely opponent could be the Los Angeles Dodgers, who racked up essentially the most wins in baseball this season.
