Charles Oakley Says NBA Blackballed Him Over MSG Incident

Recently Charles Oakley got peppered with fairly vague questions while a TMZ camera was 18 inches from his face, which is always a risk you run if you're a public figure who uses airports. As he waited around for a ride, the off-screen questioner brought up the whole Carmelo-Anthony-remains-a-free-agent subject to Oakley by saying that "some" have said that Melo might be a victim of a smear campaign.

Oakley responded to this by conceding that such a thing may be possible because, as he puts it, he's been "blackballed" by the league. When asked why he'd been blackballed, Oakley said that it likely stems from his February 2017 arrest (and subsequent temporary Madison Square Garden banishment) that came after a bizarre confrontation with Knicks owner James Dolan.

More than two-and-a-half years after that incident took place Oakley, who had previously filed a lawsuit over the matter, still contends that the man to blame for the situation is Dolan. The former 19-year-NBA-vet also expressed frustration because, in his opinion, the league hasn't done jack to punish the Knicks' often contentious owner for the role he played that night.

Around that point, while speaking on the issue of taking stands, Oakley briefly segued to the topic of Colin Kaepernick by saying that he (meaning Oakley) would probably take a stand against the NBA, though it's not 100 percent clear what he meant by that.

Asked by the interviewer what the root of the entire issue is/was, Oakley stated that Dolan just plain doesn't like him. He also expressed disappointment in commissioner Adam Silver for not really doing anything, and stated that Dolan put out a story smearing Oakley while knowing that it was BS.