Charles Oakley continues to rip former Knicks teammates, calls NBA owners greedy for wanting to salvage season
Oakley wanted to 'smack' Bernard King for sitting courtside with James Dolan
By Alex Smith | Apr 13 | 4:13PM
Charles Oakley's feud with the Knicks added another chapter on Monday morning, as Oakley ripped Bernard King, Patrick Ewing, Latrell Sprewell, and Larry Johnson on a radio appearance on WFAN.
The former Knick's ongoing battle with team owner James Dolan has been well documented, and Oakley took another swipe at some of the former Knicks players for sitting courtside with Dolan just four days after the 2017 incident that saw Oakley handcuffed and escorted out of Madison Square Garden.
"I just don't want to be around these guys," Oakley said on 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."
Ewing recently addressed the Oakley-Dolan feud, saying on ESPN Radio in late March on The Bart and Hahn Show that "Whatever is going on with him and Mr. Dolan, like I've said before, it's something that needs to stop. He's one of the best players that I've played with. He's a part of the Knicks' history. He and Mr. Dolan need to get in a room somewhere and figure that out."
On Monday, Oakley doubled down on recent comments in which he called Ewing a high-maintenance player.
"Even though I said he's high-maintenance, people might take that wrong -- he was a high-maintenance player," Oakley said. "Everybody in the world knows he was. You got to be special to play with Patrick. You had to do so much out of your ordinary just to be on the team, and that hurt us sometimes.
"As a team, we're supposed to be close and together. It wasn't that. We had to make sure he was happy. He didn't care if we was happy or not. That's a sad situation, and I see why the Knicks won't give him a job. He treated them bad -- inside out. Chris [Childs] will tell you. He was tough to play with, but he wasn't no problem to me because I understand. [Anthony Mason] had a problem with it because Mase always hollered and cussed at him."
Oakley also said that he wanted to "smack" King for deciding to sit with Dolan at that February 2017 game, despite the fact that Oakley and King were never Knicks teammates.
"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."
The opinionated Oakley didn't stop there, either. The former Knick was asked about the NBA attempting to salvage the current suspended season, and Oakley clearly isn't in favor of any of the league's reported options, or even the televised H-O-R-S-E competition that the league put together.
Oakley called NBA owners greedy for wanting to force players back into action.
"The NBA is about dollars … They're trying to put on a three-point shootout, and it's embarrassing," Oakley said. "No way they should have it. Let the guys go home, enjoy the summer, come back the next year, forget about what happened this year. They played 80 percent of the season. Let them go and let them enjoy the moment.
"Take the hit like everyone else who's getting fired or laid off, can't go to the grocery store and buy milk for the next day to day -- that's who needs the money. … You think [the NBA is] bad now? Wait til they come back, because they're not going to be in shape, they're going to get injured …"
