Myrtle Beach area sports fan in national spotlight after receiving angry email from Knicks owner
Know this about Irving Bierman.
The Brooklyn native’s been a New York Knicks fan for 63 years, he’s fed up with the team’s lousy record this season and — despite the wishes of the team’s owner — there’s no way he’s rooting for the Nets.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the 72-year-old diehard said of switching loyalties. “It’s irrelevant to my universe. It’s not the way that I am.”
For the last few days, the Carolina Forest resident has been the talk of the sports world because of his heated email exchange with Knicks owner James Dolan.
“I feel like an executive,” he said of all the media attention. “Believe me, I’m not.”
Late last month, Bierman looked up Dolan’s email address. Dolan has owned the Knicks since 1999. The team has won one playoff series in the last 14 years. Couple that with this dismal season and Bierman couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Just absolutely disgusted,” he said. “It’s like ‘My gosh, you’re 10-40 and it’s the No. 1 franchise in the universe.’”
So he took to his computer to email:
“At one stage I thought that you did a wonderful thing when you acquired EVERYTHING from you dad. However, since then it has been ALL DOWN HILL. Your working with Isaiah Thomas & everything else regarding the Knicks. Bringing on Phil Jackson was a positive beginning, but lowballing Steve Kerr was a DISGRACE to the knicks. The bottom line is that you merely continued to interfere with the franchise,” Bierman wrote. “As a knicks fan for in excess of 60 years, I am utterly embarased by your dealings with the Knicks. Sell them so their fans can at least look forward to growing them in a positive direction Obviously, money IS NOT THE ONLY THING. You have done a lot of utterly STUPID business things with the franchise. Please NO MORE.”
A short time later, Dolan responded:
“You are a sad person. Why would anybody write such a hateful letter. I am.just guessing but ill bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess. What have you done that anyone would consider positive or nice. I am betting nothing. In fact ill bet you are negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21 year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it. Maybe it will help you become a person that folks would like to have around. In the mean while start rooting for the Nets because the Knicks dont want you.”
After receiving the reply, Bierman showed the message to his wife.
“He accused my husband of things he (Dolan) is guilty of,” Joan Bierman said, adding that her husband doesn’t drink alcohol.
And “hateful?”
“I’m married to this man for 48 years,” she said. “He’s one of the nicest, kindest people. … He’s very outspoken, but that’s OK. He’s not phony. He speaks his mind.”
The outcry began after Irving Bierman shared the email with his son, filmmaker Aaron Bierman, who then sent it to some of his friends. The Dolan email hit Twitter, then the sports website Deadspin. Suddenly, the elder Bierman was getting calls from the New York tabloids, as well as from radio stations in Kansas City, Detroit and Los Angeles.
Dolan hasn’t publicly commented on the matter. Irving Bierman is still stunned the owner responded in the first place.
“It floored me,” he said. “It was like, ‘Holy cow! What a hit!’ I never expected a response in any way, shape or form. … I just did it from an emotional fan standpoint and his verbiage was totally off the wall. It had nothing to do with anything that I had said.”
Bierman has been a Knicks fan since the age of 10. He grew up watching guys like Nat “Sweetwater Clifton, Harry Gallatin and Ray Felix.
“I started falling in love with them,” he said. “You’re playing basketball, schoolyard ball and you started relating to the Knickerbockers. And then, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when they were on top of the universe, how could somebody not be a New York Knicks fan?”
Bierman played guard on his high school team, though he admits he wasn’t a starter.
“I absolutely loved the game,” he said. “I have a brother who is a year younger than me and we played about four or five million games one-on-one.”
Over the decades, his loyalty hasn’t dwindled, even during the Dolan years.
“He loves the Knicks,” Joan Bierman said. “He’s never given up on them.”
Bierman moved to the Myrtle Beach area about 15 months ago. A retiree, he worked in the computer business for more than 30 years, often selling hardware.
After his children left home and he quit working, Bierman wanted to move somewhere warmer. Some of his wife’s relatives live on the Grand Strand, so this is where they made their home.
As for the nasty response, Bierman said he doesn’t want an apology. He’d rather see Dolan sell the franchise and a new owner make the squad watchable again.
“I merely expressed an opinion, my opinion and probably every fan of the New York Knickerbockers,” he said. “I want a team. I want a competitive game.”
Regardless of what the owner does, it’s unlikely Bierman’s feelings about him will warm anytime soon. Bierman remains upset about the Brooklyn Dodgers moving to California — after the 1957 season.
“It killed me,” he said. “To this day, I’m still a Brooklyn Dodger fan.”
Contact CHARLES D. PERRY at 626-0218 or on Twitter @TSN_CharlesPerr.
This story was originally published February 10, 2015 at 12:49 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach area sports fan in national spotlight after receiving angry email from Knicks owner."