Garden chief bans Oakley in wake of incident at game
NEWYORK— Madison Square Garden Chairman James Dolan banned Charles Oakley from the arena Friday, though said he was open to reconciling with the former Knicks forward.
In an interview with ESPN Radio’s Michael Kay, Dolan also confirmed a report that he had fired the Garden’s security chief, two nights after Oakley was forcefully removed from his seat and arrested at a Knicks game. Dolan said the firing of the security head stemmed from more than just the handling of the incident.
The Knicks said Oakley was “abusive” Wednesday even before reaching his seats in the first quarter, and Friday distributed a witness report featuring more than a dozen witnesses who described his behavior and their interactions with him.
Dolan said Oakley even used racial and sexual overtones and that games must remain safe for fans, so he was enforcing the ban.
“We are going to put the ban in place, and hopefully it won’t be forever,” Dolan said.
He praised Oakley as a g re a t Kni c k a nd s a i d he hoped the power forward would be able to join his former teammates to be honored on the court someday.
But he said Oakley first must address what he characterized as anger issues.
“He should be up there being recognized because the fans do love him,” Dolan said. “But this behavior just doesn’t work with that.”
Oakley maintains he did nothing wrong before arena security approached him his seat Wednesday, just a few rows behind Dolan. On Friday, DnainfoNewYork.com reported that Frank Benedetto , the senior vice president for security at the Madison Square Garden Company, was fired Friday.
“That was just a situation where the person didn’t work out, and this was probably the last straw,” Dolan said. “We’re obviously looking at everything that we did here along the way and what happened, and that’s one of the casualties.”
Oakl e y p l aye d f o r t h e Knicks from 1988-98, helping them become one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. But they have been one of the worst franchises of the past 15 years, and Oakley’s criticisms have led to a strained relation- ship with the organization.
“This is not just a day-bef ore -yes t e rd ay i nc i dent . We’ve had a relationship with Charles since he retired and left the Knicks, and every time we have tried to do, to patch things up with him, to mend things with him, we invite him to games, that every time it ends the same way: abusive, disrespectful,” Dolan said. “And we eventually gave up, and we stopped trying to reach out for him.”
O a k l e y i s n o l o n g e r comped tickets or invited to official team functions, though still goes a few times a year when he buys his own tickets. He was there only a matter of minutes Wednesday before the altercation that included him hitting one security guard in the face and shoving at least one other before he was dragged away and handcuffed.
Linemates Patrick Kane, Artem Anisimov and Artemi Panarin each scored and combined for seven points to lead Chicago. Duncan Keith’s late goal was the winner, and Marian Hossa also scored. Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford made 28 saves in his 22nd victory, and Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck stopped 31 of 34 shots. Bryan Little and Adam Lowry scored for Winnipeg.
Mikko Koivu scored the only goal of the shootout, and Devan Dubnyk stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout for his NHL-leading 30th win to lead Minnesota. Nino Niederreiter scored his 19th goal for the Wild. Brayden Point scored his seventh goal for the Lightning, who had won two straight.
Forward Andre Burakovsky is expected to miss a month with an injured right hand. Coach Barry Trotz said Burakovsky will not need surgery.