James L. Dolan has spent nearly 30 years as the owner of the New York Knicks. For much of that time, the team was one of the worst in the National Basketball Association.

After the Knicks went to the championship round of the N.B.A. playoffs in 1999, Mr. Dolan’s first year at the helm, they made the playoffs only seven times over the next 23 years. They had the worst record in the N.B.A. in 2019, prompting the Bloomberg headline “Is the Knicks’ James Dolan the Worst Owner in Professional Sports?”

His reputation in New York City fared about as well, and Mr. Dolan’s actions never seemed to help much. He publicly battled — sometimes in court — the team’s fans, his employees, city politicians and even his own players.

But after a stunning turnaround in the past few seasons, the Knicks have a title within arm’s length. They face off against the San Antonio Spurs in the N.B.A. finals starting Wednesday. If they succeed over the best-of-seven series, Mr. Dolan, 71, would preside over the team’s first championship since 1973 — nearly 19 years before New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, was even born.

Could all be forgiven, if not forgotten, by the basketball-crazed city?

“Everyone loves a winner, and Jim Dolan sure looks like a winner right now,” said Kathryn Wylde, a longtime New York power broker who has worked on behalf of the city’s top corporations. “I suspect we are ready to forgive his grudge matches.”

Well, maybe not everyone.

“He’s the owner representing icons of Manhattan and the city at large, and to be so unloved — people love to hate him,” said Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president and a staunch critic of Mr. Dolan’s. “I don’t think it applies more aptly to anyone else than Jim Dolan.”