James Dolan allegedly fires then re-hires a security guard because she dared to not recognize him

Anonymously sourced re-tellings of New York Knicks owner James Dolan’s churlish behavior are no stranger to these pages. For every warming tale about how the MSG CEO helps pay for the health care of an ailing Knick star, there are the reports that just make you wish you hadn’t clicked any links featuring his name. There was the time Dolan reportedly grew miffed that former Attorney General John Ashcroft was allowed access and several bodyguards into an MSG suite – not because John Ashcroft is John Ashcroft – but because James Dolan didn’t recognize his country’s Attorney General.

There was the time he reportedly taped Carmelo Anthony on the court after Anthony’s skirmish with Kevin Garnett. Or the time he reportedly let personal resentment get in the way of New York retaining Jeremy Lin, merely because Lin dared to exercise his rights in the capitalist system that has done Dolan (or, perhaps more specifically, Dolan’s father) so well.

We said “reportedly” quite a bit in the preceding paragraphs, because those that like to keep their jobs won’t go on record to call out the Knick owner. Which leaves James having to find new and upsetting ways of canning his employees, however briefly. Here’s another “reportedly,” from The New York Post:

Dolan, 57, was walking into the exclusive club during Sunday’s Knick game against the Boston Celtics when security guard Fiordaliza Hernandez asked him for his ID — which he never wears, sources said.

Instead of laughing it off, Dolan snapped, “Do you know who I am?”

The startled security guard admitted she didn’t.

Then Dolan demanded, “How long have you worked here?”

Three years, the guard said.

“I’m your boss! I pay your salary!” Dolan shot back.

But rules are rules — and Dolan didn’t show his ID, so Hernandez refused to let him in, sources said.

That’s when Dolan became so angry he yelled: “Give me your ID! You’re fired!”

“I have to get new security in this building! I have idiots working here!” Dolan ranted, sources said.

Because Dolan is just mostly awful, and not pure evil, the Post is reporting that the employee was back at her job the next day after the Knick owner changed his mind. Which would be a nice end to the story had he not breached the All-Time Number One Forever Rule of “always decide to change your mind before saying something like do you know who I am?’ out loud to another human.”

Once again, this is a single-sourced hit piece from the New York Post. All the “allegedly” and “reportedly”-caveats in the world need to be put into place, because the actual lines (reportedly) coming out of Dolan’s mouth wouldn’t even make it past the rough draft stage in an awful B-movie script.

Then again, Dolan leads the NBA in lacking self-awareness, so it’s possible that a line like “do you know who I am?” actually sounds about right to him. We’ll let you be the judge.