Charles Oakley’s forcible eviction from Madison Square Garden — and eventual arrest on misdemeanor assault and criminal trespass charges — on Wednesday night has reverberated throughout the NBA, and the reactions do not help the Knicks’ reputation.
Oakley, a Knicks fan favorite as a rugged power forward during their 1990s heyday, insisted to The Post he was not heckling owner James Dolan from his baseline seat. The Garden has decried Oakley’s “abusive behavior” and said of Oakley, “Everything he said since the incident is pure fiction.”
LeBron James, the NBA’s most renowned player, sided with Oakley in an Instagram post late Wednesday night — “#Legend,” it said, alongside a vintage Oakley photo — and returned to the subject in closing his post-game interview Thursday night.