Dwyane Wade, LeBron James among National Basketball Association players expressing support for Charles Oakley

“They were abused, and abused, you know not-in a really disgusting, right, angry, nasty way”, Dolan said. “And in this case, that did happen”, Dolan said.

Dolan went on to say that Oakley’s place in Knicks history doesn’t absolve his behavior. “I had a ticket”, said Oakley.

“It is very clear to us that Charles Oakley came to the Garden with an agenda”. But there is this: after a very successful run of basketball in the 1990s-in which they went to the playoffs in every season and made the NBA Finals twice-the Knicks have been mostly awful during James Dolan’s tenure.

“I really have no beef”, Oakley said. “I LOVE the Knicks that you for all your love. What the hell you security guards gonna do”. Oakley standing – towering above even the large security crew – and then his temper clearly flares beyond anywhere it should have gone as he shoves two of the security guards. “I don’t know what the f– they’re looking at, but they’re getting on my f–ing nerves”.

A supervisor alleged that Oakley “threw himself down on the ground on purpose” and that he “definitely seemed intoxicated”.

Various reports indicate that Oakley bought a seat near Dolan and was repeatedly making heckling comments to him during the game. In addition, Oakley allegedly made inflammatory statements about “white folks” and police officers during the incident.

Oakley was escorted out of the building, arrested and charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal trespassing. I wouldn’t say embarrassed. “I probably will go around to a sports bar and drink some”, he told ESPN’s Mike and Mike on February 10. “And we eventually gave up, right, and we stopped trying to reach out for him”. And free the political prisoner Charles Oakley. The Knicks have only added fuel, issuing multiple statements on the matter – the first one Wednesday night that ended with, “He was a great Knick and we hope he gets help soon”, and then a second Thursday afternoon concluding with, “Everything he said since the incident is pure fiction”. Additionally, he dismissed Oakley’s side of the story, calling it “unbelievable”. Backlash from Knicks fans and National Basketball Association players shocked at Oakley’s treatment was swift and fierce. There was speculation that Dolan wanted Jackson to re-sign Anthony in 2014 and that he didn’t want Jackson to elevate good friend Kurt Rambis to head coach before the team hired Jeff Hornacek last offseason. “We’ve had a relationship with Charles since he retired and left the Knicks, right, and every time we have tried, right, to do, to patch things up with him, to mend things with him, we invite him to games, that every time it ends the same way, right: “abusive, disrespectful”, Dolan said”.

Does this mean that Knicks superfan Spike Lee will be the one to broker an Oakley-Dolan peace summit?