Will Charles Oakley Return to MSG For Knicks Playoff Run?
Though his New York Knicks career is long over, Charles Oakley had one last block to bestow.
Per a report from The Associated Press, Oakley has no intentions of returning to Madison Square Garden to take in a Knicks playoff game as the team stages its most legitimate championship case in quite some time. Oakley was infamously ejected from MSG during a 2017 Knicks game after an alleged confrontation with team owner James Dolan.
“I guess their lawyer called my lawyer saying it’s a good time for you to come back to the Garden,” Oakley told Dan Gelston of The AP. "“I think it’s a bad time to ask me to come to a game. The case is still going. You ain’t trying to settle a case. The case is still pending. Take care of your business with the case and let the game worry about the game, you know what I’m saying? You’re not doing anything special. If you were trying to do something special, you wouldn’t have done this.”
Oakley 60, also said he didn't want to steal the spotlight away from the current Knicks, who currently own a 2-1 series lead on the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The 10-year New Yorker (1988-98) made it clear that he was "not mad at nobody on the floor.” The Knicks are guaranteed at least one more home game at MSG on Tuesday night when the Pacer series moves back to New York after Sunday's fourth contest in Indianapolis (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
Oakley further declared that he'd be willing to join fellow former Knicks stars like Walt "Clyde" Frazier Stephon Marbury, Latrell Sprewell, and John Starks if Dolan offers an apology. Gelston noted that Oakley's ongoing legal action against the incident (assault and battery claims) was "assigned it to Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron" earlier this week.
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI
Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks