Charles Oakley To The NBA: Investigate James Dolan! | Sports Takes & News | TooAthletic.com
Spike Lee has been in the news recently for an altercation he had with security at the Madison Square Garden during one of his many attended Knicks games. Lee, who was at the game despite the abysmal Knicks record at 19-43 coming off of an abysmal decade plus of basketball leading up to this, was turned away from the employees entrance that the filmmaker has claimed to use for 28 years. While a fan being turned away from an employee space normally wouldn’t be a big deal, Lee has been beyond a fan forever, a celebrity advocate for New York basketball since the dawn of time. With the incident behind him, Spike has sworn off the Knicks for the season. The incident sparked reminders of how all time great Charles Oakley has been treated by the Garden in the past, and Oakley himself spoke out on the ESPN show Jalen & Jacoby, pleading with the NBA to look into how James Dolan is running the Knick franchise.
“I said this a long time ago, and I’m gonna keep saying it… it’s a bad situation, it’s real bad over there,” Oakley said of the situation within MSG. “Mr. Dolan, the father, wasn’t like this, when you pass stuff down and people aren’t used to working to get stuff… plantation basis, it’s a dictator controlling every situation that goes on,” Oakley continued, drawing a comparison with plantations and the unilateral effort of Dolan to remove anybody who objects to how the team is operating.
“It’s a lot of sneaky stuff going around, somebody gotta stop what’s going on at The Garden,” Oakley concluded, alluding to the thought that the league should try to find wrongdoing by Dolan.
Dolan’s main sin here seems to be disrespect of those who are also part of the franchise. Owners of sports teams aren’t truly owners; the teams are a public entity, the fans foot the bill and the alumni and community surrounding the organization are all part and parcel of it. The owner is merely the steward of the team during his or her tenure. The fact that most of Dolan’s slights have come against African American players and fans may not be a coincidence either, and Oakley’s call for an investigation is spot on.
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Charles Oakley To The NBA: Investigate James Dolan! | TooAthletic.com