Charles Oakley Has Been Banned From MSG, Even If He Buys A Ticket

The Charles Oakley saga in New York continues to take more twists and turns. Hours after James Dolan reportedly fired the vice president of security at Madison Square Garden, New York radio host Michael Kay announced that Charles Oakley has been banned from the arena.


All of this comes two days after Oakley was arrested and removed from the arena for allegedly antagonizing Dolan at the Knicks game on Wednesday night. Oakley has denied the Knicks allegations, and insists that he was minding his business when security approached him and told him to leave. In either case, Oakley became irate and ended up getting into a physical altercation with security, before being carried into the tunnel and pushed to the ground and handcuffed — and Phil Jackson reportedly called Michael Jordan to try and calm Oakley down.

The incident has caused a huge amount of backlash towards Dolan and the Knicks, from fans, current players like Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and LeBron James as well as former players sticking up for Oakley. Banning Oakley from the arena for life, if Kay’s report is true, is only going to galvanize the opposition to the Knicks in this situation.

Friday night’s game against the Nuggets in Madison Square Garden ought to be quite the scene as it will be the first time the Knicks are back in action since the incident occurred.

Update: James Dolan appeared on the Michael Kay Show following this report to confirm that Oakley was in fact banned from the arena, but said it “wasn’t necessarily for life.”

In the lengthy interview, Dolan discussed the issues the Knicks had with Oakley (as well as some Phil Jackson talk) and left the door open for a possible reunion with Oakley, but it was clear that any reconciliation would have to start with some serious effort on Oakley’s part, not the Knicks.

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