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A judge sided with Madison Square Garden in its lengthy legal battle with Charles Oakley on Friday, saying that the former New York Knicks All-Star had not proven he was assaulted when he was removed from a game he attended in 2017. Oakley was handcuffed and arrested after an altercation with security while sitting near owner James Dolan during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Oakley initially brought a number of claims against MSG that were dismissed in February 2020. After appeal, Oakley’s assault-and-battery claim remained.
But Judge Richard J. Sullivan of the Southern District of New York ruled that Oakley “has produced no evidence to support his claim that he was assaulted by MSG security guards.” MSG had pointed to video evidence and previous testimony that Oakley was not assaulted. “For more than nine years, Mr. Oakley’s lawyers have pursued claims they knew were false. Those claims have now been dismissed by the Court in their entirety — for the third time,” MSG said in a statement. “We are pursuing legal action against Douglas Wigdor, and his unscrupulous law firm, to hold them accountable for years of frivolous litigation and their blatant abuse of the judicial system.”
Oakley was a beloved Knicks forward in the 1990s, and he remains one of the few former players who has remained absent from MSG during the team’s recent playoff runs, culminating with this year’s NBA championship. His removal from the game was a jarring scene, but Sullivan ruled that Oakley hadn’t proven it was done with excessive force. “Ample evidence — including videos from multiple angles and the unanimous testimony of every witness (even, to some extent, Oakley himself) — shows that Oakley had a reasonable opportunity to depart the Garden, that he instead resorted to physical violence, and that he was never pushed to the ground,” Sullivan wrote. The judge added that “no rational jury could conclude that Oakley reasonably feared himself at risk of wrongful physical contact — let alone that MSG intended to stir such an apprehension.”
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LeBron James bypassed a reunion with his hometown team for a new opportunity with the 76ers ... so how should Cavaliers fans feel about the rejection?? Ex-NBA star and Cleveland native Charles Oakley says they should GET OVER IT!! TMZ Sports caught up with Oak at the 17th Annual Amazon Kids Back-to-School Fashion Show in NYC on Thursday ... and asked him all about the 41-year-old King's latest decision to join a fourth franchise. The Knicks great shut down any criticism about James heading to the City of Brotherly Love in pursuit of more rings ... saying what he's doing this late in his career should be admired -- and he's still a role model to young kids.
Charles Oakley: "Patrick (Ewing) always been like that. He never stood up for nobody. Even when they offered him the D-League job, I said something. And the coldest thing out of this all, I took a case for Patrick on an airplane. Put that out there. I took a case from him. Ask any teammate, Chris Childs, Charles, Allen, John, they might not say nothing, but I took a case to better his self. And this happened to me, he don't say nothing."
Charles Oakley: "I was supposed to be on the Roommate podcast. I get a call the day before. They said, we have to cancel you. And then three weeks later, guess who was on there? Dolan. Dolan. I was shooting a commercial right across from the Garden and Cafe 31 and something else. We shot for one day, the next day somebody said, somebody said we had to shut it down. We had permission and everything. So he bullying me around the city, too."
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Charles Oakley: I want to talk about the series. I want to talk about the commissioner lying again. When the commissioner is talking about with him and Michael Jordan, he's throwing Michael Jordan under the bus. That's what he's really doing. He's trying to have a conversation like they just talked yesterday. He's coming back out with something from 2017 when we met with that guy from New York, Michael, and himself. And he's trying to act like they tried to solve a problem. And he went to the public in 2017 said we met and we came to an agreement that this is over with. And now you look in the paper he's making another statement about that, but you didn't solve the problem in 2017 cuz it's nine years later and it's still going on. Q. So, Charles, there was no new meeting between you, James Dolan, the commissioner of the NBA, Michael Jordan, nothing like that has happened. Oakley: No. He's lying again. It's two times in this case he has lied about. He lied about putting the statement out that what happened. And he’s lying now like they talked two days ago. No, he didn't. I haven't talked to James, I've been to court with James. And we tried to settle and he said no. So, this has been a whole thing of they ain't blackballing me from the NBA.
But in an interview last week, Mr. Oakley said he had no plans to return to the Garden to watch the finals. On Wednesday, the Knicks won the first matchup in the best-of-seven series against the Spurs in San Antonio. The series will shift to New York for Game 3 on Monday and Game 4 on Wednesday. Mr. Oakley did not say under which conditions he would consider being there. “He started it, he can make it go away,” Mr. Oakley said of Mr. Dolan. “He’s the boss.”
Mr. Oakley said he has enjoyed watching the play and leadership of the Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who delivered clutch baskets in the Knicks’ Game 1 victory. “Even though me and the owner are in a dispute, I hope the team has success, especially for the city of New York,” he said. “They’ve been waiting for it.”