Former New York Knicks forward Charles Oakley has accused NBA commissioner Adam Silver of twisting Michael Jordan's role in the long-running James Dolan feud.
Silver recently said both he and Jordan tried to broker peace between Oakley and Dolan, only for those efforts to fail. Oakley pushed back on that version, especially with the dispute still unresolved nearly a decade after the Madison Square Garden incident.
For Oakley, the issue is not only that Silver brought Jordan's name back into the story. He believes Silver made the 2017 meeting sound cleaner and more meaningful than it ever became.
Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP via Getty Images
TMZ Sports shared Charles Oakley's response to Adam Silver, with the former New York Knicks star claiming the commissioner was dragging Michael Jordan into the James Dolan issue unfairly.
"He's throwing Michael Jordan out of the bus from what he's really doing. He's trying to have a conversation like they just talked yesterday. He's making something," Oakley said.
Oakley's frustration is tied to timing and framing. Silver's comments came during the Knicks' NBA Finals run, when Oakley's absence from Madison Square Garden has again become part of the franchise's wider story.
Jordan's name makes the issue bigger because of his history with Oakley. The two were close from their Chicago Bulls days, which is why Oakley bristled at the idea that Jordan was being used to support Silver's version of events.
Oakley also pushed back on the idea that the 2017 meeting created real peace. The meeting followed his removal and arrest at Madison Square Garden, with Silver involved and Jordan reportedly joining the conversation by phone.
"He is coming back out with something from 2017 when we met with that guy from New York, Michael, and himself, and he tried to act like they tried to solve a problem and he went to the public in 2017 and said we met and we came to an agreement that it's over with," Oakley continued.
"And now, you look in the paper, he made another statement about that. You didn't solve the problem in 2017 because it's nine years later, it's still going on," he concluded.
The unresolved nature of the feud gives Oakley's criticism its force. He still has not returned to the Garden in the way many Knicks fans want, and the tension with Dolan continues to follow every major moment around the team.
Silver may view the failed mediation as an effort that simply did not work. Oakley sees it differently, and his latest comments show he believes the league's old attempt at peace is being repackaged as something it never truly was.
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