Knicks used empty promises of championship rings to trick employees into clicking a phishing link

The Knicks danced in confetti in June, relishing their first title in a generation off the backs of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mike Brown and more.

Four months on, a lot of the goodwill that seemed to fall at the feet of New York owner James Dolan for his willingness to bankroll that title-winning unit appears to have vanished.

The 71-year-old has drawn the ire of many basketball enthusiasts in recent decades. A Trump acolyte who was forced to settle a dispute with a former Knicks executive who alleged that he fired her after filing a sexual harassment report against former New York president Isiah Thomas, Dolan is hardly a popular figure in sports.

He didn't do himself any favors with the his latest trick, one that saw him fool masses of Madison Square Garden employees hoping to get a chance to deck their fingers in gold after New York's championship triumph.

Here's what you need to know about the Knicks phishing scandal that took social media by storm.

Knicks championship ring cybersecurity test

Dolan's passion for surveillance is well-documented at this point. Madison Square Garden has been less a sporting venue that a panopticon for Dolan, wrote Wired's Noah Shachtman and Robert Silverman in April 2026. The pairing, alongside investigative journalist Pablo Torre , helped reveal the extent of Dolan's obsession with cybersecurity, detailing how, among other things, Dolan's security staff harassed and "obsessively tracked" a trans woman over a two-year period.

Perhaps it's unsurprising, then, to see Dolan and Co. return to the well once more, this time directing their efforts towards their own employees.

Dolan's company picked quite the ruse as a trojan horse to pursue its obsession with biometrics. The Athletic's Joe Vardon detailed the scope of Dolan's fixation in an article that came out Thursday. Vardon reported that the Knicks governor reportedly sent an email to employees vowing to offer them the choice of a potential championship ring.

"Congratulations, your Employee Championship Ring is here," the email read, per The Athletic.

"[Employee name], this one is on the house. MSG is issuing a complimentary employee championship ring. The same jeweler, the same craftsmanship, personalized with your name. No cost to you.

"There are two designs to choose from: Championship Gold and Garden Classic. Reserve the one you want below."

The email was a scam, however. The message was actually a phishing test, used to see if Madison Square Garden employees would click on the link featured at the bottom of the page. If they did, they were greeted not with jewelry, but with a mandatory cybersecurity class, per Vardon.

Did Knicks employees actually get championship rings?

Many longtime employees at Madison Square Garden employees are not expected to receive a championship ring for their troubles, per Vardon. Dolan has shown an unwillingness to part ways with his hordes of money over the years; ESPN's Shams Charania reported that New York's latest contract extension offer to star big Karl-Anthony Towns is worth more than $75 million less than he's eligible for.

Dolan's unwillingness to give just rewards to players who have served his franchise dutifully appears to be a window into his frugality. Predictably, that stinginess is also reserved for mere mortals, including those that make up the masses of the Madison Square Garden workforce.

Others subjected to the whims of the Dolan's parsimony appear to include select New York assistants, who have not yet received their signets.

Online reaction to Knicks championship ring cybersecurity test

Observers far and wide condemned Dolan and Co.'s actions on social media. Here are some of the more notable reactions to Dolan's controversial actions: