JULIA TIERNAN/YH Dave Checketts, President and CEO of Madison Square Garden, talked with the 'Herald' after his Branford Master's Tea

A 'Herald' conversation with Dave Checketts

Dave Checketts is the president and CEO of Madison Square Garden, Inc. In addition to operating Madison Square Garden, one of the world's most famous entertainment complexes, the company owns the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. It also owns Radio City Music Hall and produces several prominent Broadway shows, including The Scarlet Pimpernel.

The Herald sat down with Mr. Checketts to discuss John Rocker, NBA salaries, and the Garden's greatest moments.

Yale Herald: If you were in charge of the Atlanta Braves, how would you handle the John Rocker situation?

Dave Checketts: He is certainly a very gifted athlete and part of why he's good is he's crazy. He's a big guy, and when he stands on the mound, you think, "This guy is nuts, he's going to hit me." And that's part of what makes him a very good pitcher. But what he did was particularly harmful to the Braves organization. It's not just what he said—obviously, anyone with any sense of humanitarianism would be outraged. But what's really at issue here is the problem he created with his teammates. And they're upset about it.

I would call his teammates together first and find out how they felt. What you try to do is eliminate as many distractions as you can. We look after our players: we provide them with security and counseling, we take care of the players' families, we put them up in rooms, we get them tickets—all so the players don't have to worry. It's going to be very hard for the Braves to focus on the game coming into Shea Stadium. And unless his teammates say, "We're prepared for the adversity, we value him, we need him to win, we will take care of him," which is what the Knicks players said to me about Latrell Spre-well—I don't see how he can stay in Atlanta.

YH: The 1999 NBA lockout ended with the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement, which places a maximum on the amount of money players can make. How big a victory is the new pact for the league in terms of limiting outrageously high player salaries?

DC: Well, it's a big victory in some ways. Now we have a max on salaries. You can't pay Michael Jordan $36 million in one year anymore. But now what's happening—and I knew it would—is that everyone wants to get the max. I mean, if you're a star player, you're saying, "I gotta max out." And now Portland has six guys at the max, and we have two guys at the max, Sprewell and Patrick Ewing. And Allan Houston will eventually be at the max. Camby is under a long-term contract, and he's mad that he didn't max out. And this whole thing has created more drama. But it's a better drama, because salaries will actually begin to come down.

It's one of those very difficult battles that you cannot win because if you don't sign the player, he walks away. But if you do sign the player, pay him the max and then he doesn't perform, your basketball team doesn't win and everybody is mad.

YH: What was the best moment at the Garden since you've been there?

DC: A lot of great moments. 1994, the Rangers win the Stanley Cup. 1994, the Knicks win the Eastern Conference finals and go to the NBA Finals for the first time in 21 years. 1999, the Knicks reach the Finals. We've had the Grammys. We had the 1999 NBA All-Star Game, when it was Michael Jordan vs. Kobe Bryant, and Jordan won the MVP. That was a great moment. We had Jordan's second game back after playing baseball, and he scored 55 points.

YH: I watched that game. That was painful.

DC: It was painful for all of us. But you still have to step back from being a Knicks fan and say, "Wow." After a year of not playing basketball, he comes in and scores 55 points on the highest level. If I thought about it for an hour I could come up with a lot of great moments. It's a place where magic happens all the time. It's wild.

YH: Any moment that was particularly hard?

DC: Having Mark Messier walk away from the Rangers. Having Pat Riley walk away from the Knicks. I could give you a hundred moments, but probably Messier leaving was the worst.

YH: Would you consider yourself a true Knicks and Rangers fan? I know you were the general manager of the Jazz, and you're originally from Salt Lake City.

DC: No, I wouldn't consider myself a fan. I love these teams. I want players to feel a part of the tradition, but no, I'm not a fan. I'm a fan of my son's high school football team. I want him to win, and I really enjoy it. I don't enjoy Knicks and Rangers games. I find myself throwing things, kicking things, because I know how much is at stake.

YH: You sound like a fan to me.

DC: Yes, except that I can't approach it like a fan, because I have to let my frustration and anger be objective enough to make a decision.

YH: So you're not a big Jazz fan either?

DC: No. You know, I drafted Karl Malone and John Stockton, but I'm not a huge fan of the Jazz.

YH: With the Knicks reaching the Finals last year, going through the playoffs largely on the backs of Sprewell, Houston and Camby, do you think that former General Manager Ernie Grunfeld has been vindicated? I know the New York press sees it that way.

DC: He doesn't need to be vindicated. He did an excellent job. We needed to do something to turn the tide last season [when the Knicks were 21-21 and in danger of missing the playoffs]. The battle that was taking place in management had divided the organization. I hired him in 1991, and we've gotten to the playoffs for 12 straight years. But we had to make a decision.

YH: Who is going to the NBA Finals this year?

DC: I'll say it because I want it to be: I think it'll be a New York-LA Finals.

Albert Chen contributed to this article.

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