New York Knicks’ legend Charles Oakley may have retired over 15 years ago, but he’s frequently found himself in the news in the last few years. Oakley and Knicks’ owner James Dolan had a widely publicized feud that originated on February 8th, 2017 when Dolan kicked Oakley out of Madison Square Garden for disorderly behavior, eventually leading to Oakley’s arrest. The two have been involved in an ongoing legal battle since. Now, it appears as though Oakley could be picking a fight with his former teammates.
Oakley has already made it clear he wasn’t fond of his former teammates Larry Johnson, Latrell Sprewell and Bernard King hanging out with Dolan just a few days after his arrest. On a radio interview with CBS, Oakley made some more comments about his old Knicks teammates:
“I just don’t want to be around these guys…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 (Ewing) on down.”
Oakley had more comments about Ewing in particular. Oakley said,
“He was a high maintenance player… 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… He never put us on his back like he should have because every adversity he ducked away from.â€
Those are harsh words to put on a Hall of Fame player like Ewing, who gave the New York Knicks some of the best seasons they’ve ever had. These comments surely won’t sit well with Knicks fans and former players.