Former Knicks star Charles Oakley, who last month hinted at legal action, filed a civil suit Tuesday in response to his highly publicized February run-in with Madison Square Garden security guards, in which Knicks owner James Dolan is described as "one person who could not abide by Mr. Oakley’s refusal to meekly submit to people in positions of power."
In the suit filed in U.S. District Court Southern District of New York (via thewhitebronco.com), which names Dolan, Madison Square Garden and MSG Networks as defendants, Oakley accuses Dolan of "a history of mistreating former employees," though the suit points out that Dolan "inherited" control of the team from his father after Oakley's time with the Knicks.
In the aftermath of the incident during a Knicks-Clippers game, Oakley said he would consider suing Dolan, even after accepting a deal in which all charges from the incident were dropped.
Oakley was arrested after the run-in with Garden security, and Dolan suggested that the former Knicks player had an alcohol problem and anger-management issues, subsequently banning him from the arena.
The suit says "as if their public mistreatment of Mr. Oakley was not embarrassing and shameful enough, over the ensuing days Defendants Dolan and MSG launched a coordinated and defamatory public relations campaign."
Oakley is seeking unspecified damages to be determined at trial "for all monetary and/or economic damages incurred as a result of Defendants’ unlawful actions in the lawsuit."
Leading up to the incident, Oakley, who played for the Knicks from 1988-98, had been critical of the Knicks in general and Dolan in particular.
