NEW YORK — 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.
The team also shared with The Associated Press a 1-minute security video of
moments leading up to the altercation, containing brief clips of Oakley in his
seat, talking to a hostess and being confronted by Garden officials. There was
no audio.
Dolan said Oakley 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 and perhaps
alcohol issues, adding that the team would help if asked.
“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.”
Oakley played for the Knicks from 1988-98, helping them become one of the top
teams in the Eastern Conference. But they have been one of the worst franchises
of the last 15 years, and Oakley’s criticisms of the team and management has led
to a strained relationship with the organization.
“This is not just a day-before-yesterday incident. 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. “And we eventually gave up, right, and we stopped
trying to reach out for him.”
Oakley is no longer comped tickets or invited to official team functions, though
still goes a few times a year when he buys his own tickets. He was there only a
matter of minutes Wednesday before the altercation that included him hitting one
security guard in the face and shoving at least one other before he was dragged
away and handcuffed.
“The manner in which Mr. Oakley has been treated is troubling and he intends to
pursue all legal rights and remedies he may have,” attorney David Z. Chesnoff
said in a statement. “We look forward to resolving this matter and welcome
anyone who may have additional information, photographs, or videos of the events
that took place to contact us.”
The Knicks contend the trouble with Oakley on Wednesday started even before he
reached his seat, and Dolan said in the interview that Garden officials never
should have let him get there.
“It’s very clear to us, right, that Charles Oakley came to the Garden with an
agenda, right, with a mission in mind, and from the moment he stepped into the
Garden, and I mean the moment he walked through the first set of doors, he began
with this behavior, abusive behavior, disrespectful behavior,” Dolan said.
Still, the Knicks have been criticized by current and former NBA players, as
well as some of their own fans, for the treatment of Oakley during the game that
was televised nationally on ESPN. Fans chanted his name during a New York
Rangers hockey game on Thursday, and earlier in Friday’s game there were chants
of “We want Oakley!” and “Free Charles Oakley!”
But while he understands why fans are so supportive of Oakley, because of the
way he played and how much more the Knicks won, he feels he can’t allow anyone
in the building who can ruin the experience for others.
“The same people that fans who come to the game tonight, who are going to help
those fans, right, find their seats, get them food, try to make them
comfortable, they were abused and abused not – in really horrible, right, angry,
nasty way, with racially, with racial overtones, the sexual overtones, the stuff
you never, ever want to hear,” Dolan said. “And how do you bring your kids to a
game if you think that’s going to happen? You don’t.”
—
Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
