All around Madison Square Garden, at sports bars and outside the main entrance on Seventh Avenue, Knicks fans had the same response to the Charles Oakley saga: The organization isn’t just turning its back on a longtime great with a ban in the wake of the ugly scene Wednesday night, when Oakley was escorted out of the Garden and subsequently arrested. The Knicks and owner James Dolan also are ignoring those who support them by the way they are treating a fan favorite.
“That’s the first sign of disrespect to your fan base,” said Dustin Lamprecht, a 38-year-old Brooklyn native wearing an Oakley jersey.
Like plenty of other Knicks fans, Lamprecht attended Friday night’s game, a 131-123 loss to the Nuggets, to make his voice heard, not to support the team. There were sporadic chants of “Free Charles Oakley!” and “We Want Oakley!” early on. In the fourth quarter came the loudest outburst, booming “Char-les Oak-ley!” chants for several seconds that eventually were drowned out by a made 3-pointer, and later boos.
“It’s really interesting to be at the Garden for a Friday night Knicks [game] to boo my own organization,” Lamprecht said. “It’s definitely not for a win.”
Jared Handler stood in front of the Garden’s entrance with a large pink sign, which read “James Dolan is a piece of s—” on one side, and “#oakwalkout” on the other. Wearing a blue Harlem Rangers hockey jersey, he said he has lost his passion for the Knicks in recent years, dismayed by all the losing, but he felt it was important to stand up for Oakley.
“The way he got treated, it’s disgusting,” Handler said. “It’s the most disrespectful thing you can do to an ex-Knick, who [gave you] blood, sweat and tears. Now you make the guy buy his own tickets?”
Fans were clearly giving Oakley the benefit of the doubt, while pinning most of the blame on Dolan. A few said Oakley had to accept some responsibility for the initial incident, especially for putting his hands on a few security guards. But that’s where the issue should have ended, rather than the subsequent press releases criticizing Oakley’s behavior and the current ban.
“It’s a P.R. disaster,” said Brian Mack, a 32-year-old Knicks fan wearing a “Fire Dolan” T-shirt. “They really don’t have people in the office who know what they’re doing. There’s a way to handle this stuff. Then they fire the VP of security [Frank Benedetto].
“Did he mess up, or did Charles Oakley mess up? When you fire the guy, it makes it seem like the guy did the wrong thing. It’s very strange to me they would fire this guy and stay with their assertion that Charles Oakley was acting [like] a fool.
“It’s shameful. I’ve been a Knicks fan for my entire life, and Charles Oakley reps what the Knicks should be. The fact he has been banned, it’s pathetic.”
Despite another losing season, and this latest mess, Knicks fans don’t sound ready to throw in the towel on their team. But the Oakley situation has given them pause.
“I’ll still come out and support the team, but situations like this make you wonder why,” said Peter Beach, a 38-year-old Bronx resident. “They haven’t been giving us a quality product. They’re obviously not open to criticism. They don’t treat their former players well. Why are we paying all this money to come out?”
“It’s been 15 years of dumpster fires, there’s no other way to put it,” 27-year-old Hoboken native Dan Marcux said. “Fifteen years of overpaying guys who are past their prime, 15 years of not developing rookies, 15 years of trading away picks. We need ownership that’s actually going to put time into developing a team, putting pride back in the New York Knicks.”