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Charles Oakley blames Patrick Ewing for Knicks not getting past Bulls
One of the subjects discussed during Sunday's episodes of ESPN's "The Last Dance" docuseries was how the New York Knicks blew a 2-0 series lead to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals.
One former Knicks player is still pointing fingers about that heartbreak nearly three decades later.
For a piece published on Sunday evening, Charles Oakley told Marc Berman of the New York Post that he blames center and Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing for New York not getting past Jordan and the Bulls and preventing Chicago's championship three-peat.
"The best player won," Oakley told the Post about the series. "Michael was a better player than Patrick hands down."
Berman added:
“The Bulls had Michael and we had Patrick,’’ Oakley said. “It’s like seeing Beyoncé and going to see someone trying to be Beyoncé. If Beyoncé is in town, everyone’s going to see Beyoncé. If Michael and Patrick are in town, everyone is going to see Michael. They had ‘The Show.’ We tried to stop them and we couldn’t stop them.”
Per Basketball-Reference, Jordan led all scorers across the six contests with 32.2 PPG. Ewing, meanwhile, led the Knicks in scoring (25.8 PPG), rebounding (11.2 RPG), blocks (1.8 BLK), steals (1.7 STL), and minutes per game (41.8).
Oakley averaged 8.7 PPG, 10.8 RPG, and 32.7 MPG.
Oakley also blasted officiating and took a shot at Jordan and his Chicago teammates while speaking with the Post:
“We should’ve beaten them and we didn’t beat them,’’ Oakley said. “The Bulls got a lot of calls. I tell that to Michael to this day. The league’s best player will get all the calls when he needed to."
He continued:
“I took the ball from Michael in that series and they called a foul and I didn’t even touch him,” Oakley added. “The one thing I didn’t like about Phil (Jackson)’s Bulls is they complained about the officials, about physicality. We were playing hard. If you complained to me, you’re soft.
Oakley played alongside Jordan with the Bulls from 1985 through the spring of 1988.
More must-reads:
- Michael Jordan: Career retrospective
- Final episode of 'The Last Dance' reportedly not completed yet
- The 'NBA Summer League MVPs' quiz
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