Dolan’s No-Sex Playoff Joke Became a Knicks Championship Talking Point

New York Knicks owner James Dolan did not expect a joking pre-playoff request to become one of the most talked-about stories of the team’s title celebration. At the start of the playoffs, Dolan asked his players to give up sex for 10 weeks as a possible competitive edge, and the remark resurfaced during the Knicks’ NBA championship run.

In a Howard Stern interview during the team’s media tour after winning the NBA title, Karl-Anthony Towns was asked about Dolan’s speech. Towns, who is engaged, laughed and said, “I’m a very happily engaged man,” adding that when he got home and told his fiancée what Dolan had said, “she really did not like hearing that.”

The full speech, later released by the podcast hosted by Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, showed Dolan telling players, “I thought maybe you should give up sex for the next 10 weeks. You don’t have to, but like the Spartans, they gave up things to get an edge.” He then joked, “Go home, talk to your women. Don’t tell them there will be no sex and don’t say it was my idea.”

The story landed amid a historic postseason for New York. The Knicks completed a playoff run that ended with their first championship since 1973, snapping a 53-year title drought and bringing the trophy back to Madison Square Garden.