Charles Oakley is still furious about his ejection from Madison Square Garden in 2017, and Knicks owner James Dolan’s role in it.
Oakley ripped former teammates Patrick Ewing, Latrell Sprewell, and Larry Johnson for sitting with Dolan four days after Oakley was ejected from Madison Square Garden after having a verbal altercation with the Knicks owner. Oakley said he’d lost respect for his ex-teammates after sticking up for them during their playing careers.
“I just don’t want to be around these guys,” Oakley told WFAN’s “The DA Show.” “A lot of guys I played with, I just lost respect for them because I went to war for them. I protected them, from Patrick on down. Patrick just spoke up two weeks ago about this. But I could have gotten sentenced in jail for 20 years. Three years later, it’s over with really. It’s a PR stunt.”
Oakley also ripped Bernard King, who he never played with, and said he wouldn’t even be able to speak to him for sitting with Dolan.
“I was disappointed in Bernard King, too,” Oakley said. “I addressed it to him … two years ago. He said, ‘Well, my wife wanted to go to a game.’ I said, ‘Bernard, this man [Dolan] makes you turn off your Twitter account, and you’re going to tell me out of 41 home games, this is the game your wife wanted to go to?’ I wanted to smack Bernard. Serious. … I lost so much respect for him. I can’t even speak to him.”
Ewing has urged Oakley and Dolan to sort their differences, which appears to have set Oakley off. It doesn’t sound like he’ll be taking Ewing’s advice anytime soon.
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