New York Knicks employees who clicked a link in an email promising them their own championship ring got an unwelcome surprise: the offer was a company-run phishing test, and clicking it meant a mandatory cybersecurity class, The New York Times reported.
The email, sent in late September, read "Congratulations, your Employee Championship Ring is here" and asked staff to choose between two ring designs. Employees of Madison Square Garden, which Knicks owner James Dolan also owns alongside the New York Rangers, who took the bait were required to attend the training "to help satisfy some of Dolan's growing cybersecurity concerns," according to team sources cited in the report.
Corporate phishing tests are common practice, typically designed with subtle telltale signs — a misspelled sender domain, an oddly formal greeting — that a careful employee should catch. It is not clear whether the Knicks' version included such tells, but the offer itself was not implausible: most NBA team employees genuinely do receive championship rings, even if less elaborate than the ones players get, after a title win. The Knicks won their first NBA championship in more than half a century this past June, and the team only just raised its championship banner this week — though notably, assistant coaches reportedly received only empty ring boxes on banner night, with the actual rings still to come, since orders, designs and measurements for an entire coaching staff can take time even for a team that just won it all.