Call me a fool for believing in James Dolan, but I believe the guy.
I wanted to hear from him; I felt like it was important to hear from him, for what happened on Tuesday night at the Knicks game with Charles Oakley; Dolan needed to save himself by coming out and saying his side of the story to why he removed Oakley from the game. And you know what, he was successful at explaining himself. Maybe he didn't get through some fans, but he got through to me.
In this interview with Michael Kay and Don Lagreca, he was 100% genuine. Not once, he downgraded Oakley in this interview. I truly believe Oakley was acting out of line or may have been drinking, and needed to be removed. This sounds like to me, Oakley has done this multiple times.
There's no way Dolan would lie about this or makeup a story just to get Oakley out of the game. In fact, the Knicks and MSG channel didn't even televise Oakley getting removed from the arena. The only way I found out something happened was because the crowd around the Knicks bench were all looking to their right, as if a fight broke out in the crowd. That's when I tweeted 'what happened' because I felt the beat writers who are at the game would know. I thought a fight broke out with two fans or something.
So the Knicks and Madison Square Garden tried to cover Oakley's arrest by not televising it, which would've been embarrassing for him; that shows you how the Knicks respect him. But the reason why we all saw it, is because the Knicks and Clippers game was on ESPN, and ESPN had no shame in televising a player being pulled out of the arena.
At first, I complained about the Knicks/MSG network not showing it on television, but you know what, after all that's happened and how the Knicks were bashed after this whole incident, it was the right thing for them not to show it on the MSG Network. Give them credit.
If the game wasn't on ESPN, it would've taken us a while for it to be shown because we'd had to wait t'll people post it on social media from their phones. The game being on ESPN made the story big news, faster, since it was shown live on HD. Which would've made Oakley look a lot better, to be quite honest.
I guess you can say ESPN made Oakley look bad, more than the Knicks did.
Give Dolan credit for coming on television, live on studio, as well. Some owners like to sit behind their throne and never show their faces; some do a lot of bad things and never show their face or talk.
Dolan is a former alcoholic. If he knows someone has a problem with drinking, it's gotta be someone whose been through it -- right? When the Knicks sent out that statement on that very night, where the last night said "we hope he gets the help he needs" they really meant it. I took it wrong the first time I saw it, but after hearing from Dolan, the Knicks really meant that Oakley needs help.
Also Dolan said he'd help Oakley, which he doesn't have to.
In a day-and-age where the media loves racial issues, a situation like this where you have a black man (whose a millionaire) and a white man - whose a billionaire, that Knicks fan hate, the white billionaire man is not gonna win. Especially in an era where the public's mind is all fucked up by what's going on in the world, with race and the cops. But this Oakley, Dolan situation can't be looked at that way. It can't.
Oakley is a man that has a personality Dolan that doesn't fit with and Oakley didn't get the message.
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