If you thought playoff pressure was just about missed shots and blown leads, try telling your fiancée the team owner wants you to give up sex for two and a half months. That was the reality for New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns after Knicks owner James Dolan reportedly made a lighthearted — but eyebrow-raising — request ahead of the team’s postseason run.
Dolan, speaking to the team before the playoffs, suggested players abstain from intimacy for 10 weeks, according to a video clip released by Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart on their podcast Roommates. The owner framed it as a Spartan-like sacrifice for a competitive edge.
“I had this idea that maybe you should give up sex for the next 10 weeks,” Dolan said, drawing chuckles from the room. He clarified it wasn’t a mandatory order, but he pushed the concept of temporary denial as a way to focus. “You don’t have to give up sex for the next 10 weeks, but like Spartans — do you know what Spartans are? They denied themselves so that they could have an edge. Get the edge.”
Dolan even advised players to pitch the idea to their partners without naming him as the source. “Don’t tell them it was my idea, but let them know what this is going to be like, what your commitment is going to be like, and how they’re going to have to sacrifice too,” he said.
Towns, who is engaged to model and entrepreneur Jordyn Woods, appeared on The Howard Stern Show and revealed how that conversation played out at home. “I’m a happily engaged man. I will definitely say, when I came home and I told my fiancée what he said, she didn’t like to hear that one,” Towns said with a laugh.
Stern pressed Towns on whether he actually followed through on Dolan’s joke. With a grin, Towns answered, “I would say she’s very happy.”
The Knicks went on to win a championship, which makes the whole thing easier to laugh about now. Whether the celibacy request had any real impact is pure speculation, but the story adds another layer to the lore of New York’s playoff run. The team has not officially commented on the video or the claim, but the clip speaks for itself.
For fans, it’s a reminder that NBA owners sometimes operate in a world of eccentric ideas — and that the people closest to the players often get the last laugh.
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