(EXCLUSIVE) Charles Oakley Speaks on Patrick Ewing MSG Harassment Incident: ‘Everything That Happens at the Garden, Comes From Upstairs’

Many people were surprised to learn that former New York Knicks star Patrick Ewing was “accosted” and stopped this week while walking the halls of Madison Square Garden when he visited as coach of Georgetown’s men’s basketball team.

One person not taken by surprise was his former Knicks teammate, Charles Oakley, who knows firsthand about the unwelcoming atmosphere at MSG for some former players.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Oakley told Human Nature via phone Thursday. “Somebody ordered that to happen. The same thing happened to me, and Spike Lee.”

The “somebody” Oakley is referring to is Knicks owner James Dolan, who ordered MSG security personnel to remove Oakley from an NBA game at the “world’s most famous arena” in Feb. 2017.

In a viral video clip, no less than eight MSG security guards can been seen trying to physically remove Oakley from MSG, where he played for the Knicks from 1988 to 1998.

Oakley, who is 57, was ultimately arrested and removed from MSG. He subsequently filed a lawsuit against Dolan, accusing him of defamation, assault and false imprisonment.

Last year, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Oakley’s lawsuit against Dolan can move forward, overruling a lower court judge’s decision to toss out the lawsuit. The appeals court reinstated the assault and battery claims Oakley made in the lawsuit. However, the court rejected Oakley’s claims of defamation and false imprisonment.

(Photo courtesy of ABC/Dancing With The Stars)

Ewing Harassed at Homecoming

Moments after Ewing led his alma mater Georgetown to a thrilling victory over rival Villanova in the Big East tournament, he said in a press conference that he was annoyed by the security measures he has encountered this week at Madison Square Garden, where he played from 1985-2000 as the All-Star center for the Knicks.

“I do want to say one thing, though. I thought this was my building,” Ewing said. “And I feel terrible that I’m getting stopped, accosted, [people] asking for passes.”

“Everybody in this building should know who the hell I am, and I’m getting stopped—I can’t move around this building. I was like, ‘What the hell? Is this Madison Square Garden?'”

“I’m going to have to call Mr. Dolan and say, ‘Geez, is my number in the rafters or what?'” he said.

“I thought this was my building. … Everybody in this building should know who the hell I am.”

Patrick Ewing was upset after he said he got stopped multiple times by security at Madison Square Garden. pic.twitter.com/r6DN9JITG8

— Sporting News (@sportingnews) March 11, 2021

To Oakley, Ewing’s MSG mistreatment should serve as a wake-up call for the Hall of Fame center, who he says has been slighted in the past by Dolan, who has offered Ewing only trivial jobs, such as representing the Knicks at the NBA Draft.

Another slight, Oakley says, was Ewing being offered a job coaching the Knicks then D-League team when it was well known he was seeking an NBA head coaching job.

“How can offer your best player a D-league job?” Oakley said.

Latest In String of High Profile Garden Incidents

Oakley, who appeared with Ewing at a virtual fundraiser for New York mayoral candidate Ray McGuire on Monday, says its unfathomable that Knicks security personnel didn’t know who Ewing was.

“Ninety percent of the people at the Garden [this week] was there when he [Ewing] played there,” Oakley told Human Nature.

“Everything that happens at the Garden, comes from upstairs,” he said.

In a hastily released statement on Thursday, MSG offered little specifics on what happened between Ewing and its security personnel during the week.

“Jim and Patrick have a long-standing relationship; they spoke this afternoon and reaffirmed that. We all know, respect and appreciate what he means to The Garden and New York. Good luck to him and his Hoyas in the Big East semi-finals,” the statement said.

Ewing is the third high-profile African American to have a public dispute with MSG security in recent years.

Last year, Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee, the Knicks’ most famous fan, got into a heated confrontation with MSG staff members who had denied him admittance to an entrance typically reserved for media and employees—an entrance Lee said he has used for 30 years. Lee also accused Dolan of repeatedly lying about why he was stopped.

Ewing Incident Undermines Knicks’ Quest for Relevancy

The Ewing incident could not have come at a worst time for the Knicks, who have been trying to turn the page from the damaging security run-ins with Oakley and Lee.

Under the direction of former agent Leon Rose, now the team’s President, the Knicks have added several advisors with the intent of raising the franchise’s brand profile, which has been hampered by years of consistent losing and an increasingly unpopular owner.

Entertainment movers and shakers William Wesley and Steve Stoute were among the hires brought in to help make the franchise more attractive to free agents and its restless fan base.

As part of the those efforts, last month, the Knicks draped a huge billboard alongside MSG to welcome home rapper Bobby Shmurda, who had just been released from prison after six years for criminal weapons possession.

However the notion that a superstar would join the Knicks, over say the Brooklyn Nets or another contender, is far-fetched and “gaslighting,” Oakley said.

“I don’t believe they will get any superstars,” he said. “Who you think going to go to the Knicks? Brooklyn has four superstars already.”

Oakley Calls for NBA Intervention

Oakley said it’s time for NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s owners to intervene and address what appears to be a pattern of aggressive behavior by MSG security toward certain former players and fans.

“They all need to step up,” Oakley said. “This is bad for the city when the owner attracts bad press against the whole franchise and NBA.”

Oakley said it’s also important for the NBA to act given the current movement for social justice that has been sweeping the world and the NBA.

“Stuff is changing,” Oakley said. “When are you [NBA] going to stand up?”