Oakley 'can't respect' former Knicks who sat with Dolan at MSG

Contrary to what NBA commissioner Adam Silver appeared to indicate in a statement earlier this week, the relationship between Charles Oakley and New York Knicks owner James Dolan is far from mended.

Oakley, rather, insists Silver "tricked" him into participating in a peacemaking session with Dolan - with Michael Jordan helping to mediate - for the sake of sweeping the ugly incident (and messy fallout) at Madison Square Garden last week under the rug.

"They tried to tell me, 'Let's get some understanding around this,'" Oakley told The Undefeated's Mike Wise. "I told them in the meeting, 'My understanding is, it might be three, four, five years before I come to a conclusion how I feel about going back in the Garden."

Dolan had already tried to do his own public-relations rehab after his clumsy handling of the Oakley incident, inviting former Knicks icons Latrell Sprewell, Bernard King, and Larry Johnson to sit beside him at MSG for Sunday's game. Sprewell, who hadn't been invited to the Garden since being traded by the Knicks in 2003, was given a warm reception and a video tribute welcoming him back. Oakley saw through it, and was not pleased.

"I'm really pissed about how they brought those guys back to sit with him," he told Wise. "Bernard King is a legend and everything, but he went through an incident where he was wronged in college by the police.

"And I can't respect Sprewell. These guys were flown in town to make him look good. I can't respect those guys no more."

Oakley said that while the league and Dolan reached out under the pretense of wanting to smooth things over - offering him a chance to return to the Garden, and apparently even proposing a role within the organization - what they're really trying to do is keep him silent.

"I don't want this to spin it like everything is OK," he said.

"Everybody thinks this is over. This is far from over."