Charles Oakley says James Dolan was ‘way out of line’ for alcoholism insinuation

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.”

Oakley was arrested at a Knicks game two weeks ago and charged with three counts of third-degree misdemeanor assault after resisting MSG security officers who were attempting to remove him. Oakley insisted he did nothing wrong, while Dolan and the Knicks claim his actions had been escalating and he was exhibiting “abusive” behavior before being ejected halfway through the first quarter.

“He’s definitely a control freak,” Oakley told SI Now. “He’s got everyone in The Garden on pins and needles. The other owners know this, they’re going to end up letting something happen like what happened to the LA Clippers, it’s that bad and they won’t talk about it. It’s that bad.

Oakley first agreed that Dolan was on the same level as Donald Sterling, the disgraced former owner of the Clippers, but backed off from bluntly calling Dolan a racist.

“Uh, I mean, he’s on the level,” he said. “The level can be, you build a house or you build a pyramid. This man, he’s been around for a long time and I ain’t hear nothing good about him.”

Dolan insinuated Oakley had a problem with alcohol on a radio show days afterward, which Oakley flatly rejected and explained why it couldn’t be true.

“He’s way out of line,” he said. “If I had those type of issues or problems, someone would have come forward.”

Oakley even said he’d rather go to jail than for people to think he got out of trouble thanks to the Knicks’ help. You can see all his comments on SI Now here.