NEW YORK (AP) — Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan banned Charles
Oakley from the arena Friday, though said he was open to reconciling with the
former Knicks forward.
In an interview with ESPN Radio’s Michael Kay, Dolan also confirmed a report
that he had fired the Garden’s security chief, two nights after Oakley was
forcefully removed from his seat and arrested at a Knicks game. Dolan said the
firing of the security head stemmed from more than just the handling of the
incident.
The Knicks said Oakley was “abusive” Wednesday even before reaching his seats in
the first quarter, and on Friday distributed a witness report featuring more
than a dozen witnesses who described his behavior and their interactions with
him.
Dolan said Oakley even used racial and sexual overtones and that games must
remain safe for fans, so he was enforcing the ban.
“We are going to put the ban in place and hopefully it won’t be forever,” Dolan
said.
He praised Oakley as a great Knick and said he hoped that the power forward
would be able to join his former teammates to be honored on the court someday.
But he said Oakley first must address what he characterized as anger issues.
“He should be up there being recognized because the fans do love him,” Dolan
said. “But this behavior just doesn’t work with that.”
Oakley maintains he did nothing wrong before arena security approached him his
seat Wednesday, just a few rows behind Dolan. On Friday, DnainfoNewYork.com
reported that Frank Benedetto , the senior vice president for security at the
Madison Square Garden Company, was fired Friday.
“That was just a situation where the person didn’t work out and this was
probably the last straw,” Dolan said. “We’re obviously looking at everything
that we did here along the way and what happened, and that’s one of the
casualties.”
