Charles Oakley banned from Madison Square Garden: Updates and much more

Former New York Knicks great Charles Oakley will open a civil lawsuit in response to his altercation with Madison Square Garden security last season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ian Begley.

Oakley’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told ESPN last month that they would explore “all civil remedies” following the incident. It is not yet clear if the lawsuit will specifically target Knicks owner James Dolan or the Madison Square Garden Company, per ESPN.

Charles Oakley hasn’t forgiven James Dolan. While his ban from Madison Square Garden may have been lifted after a meeting between the two facilitated by the NBA, Oakley is still criticizing the Knicks owner, this time to SI Now on Wednesday.

“It can’t just end because we had the meeting,” Oakley said. “I think the league was trying to send a message, they were trying to make they selves look good.”

Knicks and Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan has fired the arena’s top security chief after a bizarre and embarrassing clash with New York legend Charles Oakley on Wednesday that ended with Oakley being led out of the building in handcuffs.

Frank Benedetto was the team’s senior vice president for security at the Madison Square Garden Company until Friday morning, according to a report by the New York neighborhood news source DNAinfo.com.

The New York Knicks released a statement on Thursday, doubling down on their stance that former All-Star Charles Oakley was belligerent before his arrest on Wednesday during the Knicks’ 119-115 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Oakley engaged in a shoving match with Madison Square Garden security before he was forcibly removed from his seat rows away from Knicks owner James Dolan. He was later arrested and charged with three counts of misdemeanor assault, as well as one count of criminal trespass, according to ESPN.com’s Ian Begley.

Ex-Knicks great Charles Oakley was arrested after an altercation in close proximity to team owner James Dolan during New York’s 119-115 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.

Oakley told the New York Daily News he bought a ticket to Wednesday’s game and never said a word to Dolan. The two have historically feuded with each other. But four minutes into the first quarter, Madison Square Garden security asked the former All-Star to leave at the owner’s request. A shoving match ensued:

How did Charles Oakley, a Knicks mainstay in the 1990s, find himself wrestled to the floor by six Madison Square Garden security guards in the middle of a game? Oakley said he was provoked by MSG security acting at the behest of one of their bosses.

“Me and four friends went to the game tonight to watch the Knicks and the Clippers,” Oakley said in an interview at Jimmy’s NYC, a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. “We had just sat down to have a good time. Next thing I know, I was asked to leave the building. I asked why, and they said, ‘You have to leave because someone ordered you to leave.’”

Charles Oakley was arrested at Madison Square Garden in the first quarter of the Knicks-Clippers game for yelling at James Dolan and then fighting security.

Oakley is well-known as a terrifying man, in the sense that he could probably beat up God if he wanted to. During his NBA career, he was a feared enforcer who got into a multitude of fights.

In a bizarre moment halfway through the first quarter of a New York Knicks home game, Charles Oakley was removed from his front row seat, handcuffed and at one point brought to the ground after an altercation. Oakley, who spent 10 seasons with the Knicks, was reportedly arguing with owner James Dolan before the situation escalated, according to multiple reporters on the scene.

It took a number of security members to remove Oakley, who refused to calm down even after being escorted into the tunnels. Play briefly stopped with Knicks and Clippers players watching the scene.