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Knicks Fan On Dolan's Email: 'Everything He Said To Me Was A Joke'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The man on the receiving end of James Dolan's electronic fury says he was "totally" shocked to get a response from the Knicks owner after criticizing the direction of the franchise.

Irving Bierman, 73, said Monday on WFAN's "Boomer & Carton" show that it was his first time ever writing to Dolan. In his email, Bierman asked Dolan to consider selling the team for the sake of the fans and blasted the hands-on owner for doing "a lot of utterly STUPID business things with the franchise."

"Look, I was just giving my feelings," Bierman told Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton. "I mean, I'm not a violent person. I'm not looking to -- my biggest question is why? Why do you make these dumb, irrelevant decisions that tear down a franchise?"

In his reply that was originally published by the website Deadspin, Dolan called Bierman "a sad person" and "a hateful mess." He went so far as to wonder if Bierman has a drinking problem: "You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21 year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it."

"Absolutely not," Bierman said. "The last time I had a drink was when I was 18 in high school."

Dolan also told Bierman to root for the rival Brooklyn Nets "because the Knicks (don't) want you."

"To me, it was a joke," said Bierman. "Everything he said to me was a joke. It had nothing to do with (what I wrote) in my original email."

His reply?

"I said 'Thank you and good luck,' " Bierman said.

Irving Bierman On Nastygram From Knicks Owner

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Bierman also spoke with 1010 WINS on Monday, saying his intention "was not to be harmful to anybody; I wasn't being disrespectful. I was being 100 percent professional, unlike him."

Bierman told WINS that the speculation summoned by Dolan was "absolutely unequivocally false, wrong, irrelevant to what I had written to him."

"I totally flipped out, I couldn't believe it," he said. "My initial email to him was very straightforward. I wasn't being antagonistic, I was just saying, 'Hey look, by the way, there are a number of things that you did wrong so just help everybody and sell the team.' "

Bierman told CBS2's Otis Livingston he's rooted for the Knicks for 63 years and won't stop now, adding he'd love to sit down in a room with Dolan, in person, so they can speak one on one.

"The word is 'why.' Why did you listen to this person? Why did you listen to that person? It's like you're on a sinking ship and you have a Band-Aid in your pocket," Biermann said. "I'm a Knicks fan and you're killing my team."

The NBA will reportedly not punish Dolan for the email, Livingston reported. Commissioner Adam Silver told the New York Post, "Jim is a consummate New Yorker. He got an unkind email and responded with an unkind email."

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