Charles Oakley Demands Apology from James Dolan Before Returning to Madison Square Garden

Former New York Knicks star Charles Oakley remains absent from the team's playoff games despite sitting courtside with teammates. Oakley's highly-publicized beef with owner James Dolan stems from a 2017 ejection and subsequent assault charges, leading Oakley to boycott the Garden.

Former New York Knicks star Charles Oakley has been a notable absence from the team's playoff games, despite his fellow ex-players sitting courtside cheering on their old team. Oakley's highly-publicized beef with Knicks owner James Dolan reaches back to 2017 when Oakley was ejected from a game and charged with assault after an altercation with a security official near Dolan's seat.

The incident remains a he-said, she-said situation. The team claims Oakley was yelling continuously at Dolan, while Oakley denies this and alleges he was asked to leave the arena for no reason. Oakley's assault charge was eventually dropped, but a legal battle between the two parties continues.

Despite the ongoing litigation, Oakley says Dolan's lawyers have reached out to invite him to a recent game. However, Oakley has rebuffed the overtures, demanding an apology from Dolan first. "They've got to apologize," he said to The Associated Press. "We'll go from there. Can (Dolan) be man enough to say, mistakes happen. And he made one."

Oakley has filed an amended lawsuit against Dolan and Madison Square Garden, assigning the case to Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron. The lawsuit includes assault and battery claims. "Just be honest," Oakley said. "Just be transparent over what you put someone through and how you changed their life. This definitely changed my life. My daughter Googled me, they show them pulling me out of the Garden, that's bad. That's hell for a kid to see that."

MSG has denied all claims. "There's no kind of agreement. There's no kind of, 'Let's make this go away,'" Oakley said. "They're not being transparent about what happened."

Oakley remains firm in his stance that he will only return to MSG if Dolan apologizes and settles the legal case. "I think it's a bad time to ask me to come to a game," Oakley said. "The case is still going. You ain't trying to settle a case. The case is still pending. Take care of your business with the case and let the game worry about the game, you know what I'm saying? You're not doing anything special. If you were trying to do something special, you wouldn't have done this."

Despite his absence, Oakley admits he is rooting for the Knicks from home. "I don't want to get in their way, they're playing great," Oakley said. "I'm going to cheer at the guys to do well. I'm not mad at nobody on the floor."

The Knicks currently lead their series against the Indiana Pacers, two games to one. They aim for their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.