Former New York Knicks player Charles Oakley still isn't ready to step foot inside Madison Square Garden, even with the team enjoying some of its best success since his era.
Not during these NBA playoffs, and certainly not as long as he has an ongoing lawsuit against Madison Square Garden and team owner James Dolan over a tussle with security at a 2017 game that got Oakley ejected from the arena.
Oakley believed there was an offer to join past Knicks players such as Stephon Marbury and Latrell Sprewell who have been attending playoff games at MSG, but a spokesperson for the organization said there has not been an invitation extended to Oakley.
That's fine with the former NBA enforcer and rebounding machine with the 1990s Knicks. He said he has no interest in coming back — though he continues to root for the team — as long as he remains in a dispute with the organization.
The animosity dates to February 2017 when Oakley was arrested after an altercation with MSG security officials, who approached him at a game while he was seated near Dolan. MSG has said in court filings that Oakley was asked to leave the game because of his disruptive behavior.
Oakley was cleared of misdemeanor assault charges in 2018.
So what would it take for Oakley to sit courtside at the Garden?
“They've got to apologize,” he said. “We'll go from there. Can (Dolan) be man enough to say, mistakes happen. And he made one."
Oakley brought assault and battery claims against Dolan and an amended lawsuit was filed just last month. An order Thursday assigned it to Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron to handle going forward.
“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 of Oakley's claims and said in a statement it expected this case to be thrown out after two previous dismissals.
“This matter should be behind all of us at this point, but because of the ongoing legal maneuverings of Charles Oakley and his lawyers, this case will apparently now have to continue,” MSG said. “Nevertheless, we fully expect this case to be dismissed — for the third time.”
Behind Jalen Brunson, the Knicks are enjoying an NBA renaissance and have a 2-1 lead over the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Knicks are trying to reach the conference finals for the first time since 2000.
The 60-year-old Oakley played for the Knicks from 1988-98, helping them reach the NBA Finals. His relationship with the team remains poor even though Commissioner Adam Silver, with former Bulls teammate Michael Jordan participating by phone, worked to get the sides to reconcile in 2017 so Oakley could attend games at MSG.
“It's been a struggle the last seven years,” Oakley said. “There have been things said that weren't true. The league didn't step in. The commissioner is pretty soft. He didn't do nothing. The city got behind me and I'm always behind the fans. I love that.”
The Knicks' two straight trips to the second round of the playoffs are their first since going nine consecutive times from 1992-2000. Oakley likes watching them, but he isn't ready to do it from the arena like longtime teammate John Starks.
“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.”
Oakley stirred some ill will recently toward his former teammates when he was a guest on an SiriusXM show and said Brunson was the best Knicks player since Walt Frazier. It was a slight that got back to Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing, Oakley's former Knicks teammate whom he has feuded with off and on with since they retired.
Ewing took the high road on another NBA podcast and declined to enter the debate.
“They said leadership was a big thing and Patrick wasn't a great leader,” Oakley told The Associated Press. “Brunson, I think was way more a leader.”
Ewing and Oakley were stars on the team that reached the NBA Finals in 1994, when the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup. They also are in the second round of the playoffs.
"It's like 1994 all over again,” Oakley said.
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FILE - Former New York Knicks player Charles Oakley is shown before an NBA basketball game between the Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland, Feb. 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
NEW DELHI (AP) — India began counting more than 640 million votes Tuesday in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power.
The six-week election was seen as a referendum on Modi. If the 73-year-old wins, it will only be the second time an Indian leader has retained power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.
Exit polls on Saturday by major television channels projected a comfortable win for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies over a broad opposition alliance led by the Congress party and its main campaign leader, Rahul Gandhi.
Indian television channels have had a mixed record in the past in predicting election results.
Nearly 970 million people, more than 10% of the world’s population, were eligible to vote. Turnout was around 66% on average across the seven phases, according to official data.
The tallying of votes at counting centers in each of the 543 constituencies where polls were held could stretch into the evening before a final result is declared by the Election Commission of India.
But leads will start to emerge earlier, which will give an idea of where the results may be headed.
Extreme heat struck India as voters went to the polls, with temperatures higher than 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country. The chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said officials had learned a valuable lesson. “We should have completed the election at least one month before,” he said. “We shouldn't have let it continue into so much heat.”
On Tuesday, BJP workers outside the party's office in New Delhi performed a Hindu ritual shortly after the counting began. Meanwhile, supporters at the Congress party headquarters appeared upbeat and chanted slogans praising Gandhi, the party’s campaign face.
In his 10 years in power, Modi has transformed India’s political landscape. His popularity has outstripped that of his party’s, and has turned a parliamentary election into one that increasingly resembles a presidential-style campaign. The result is that the BJP relies more and more on Modi’s enduring brand to stay in power, with local politicians receding into the background even in state elections.
“Modi was not just the prime campaigner, but the sole campaigner of this election,” said Yamini Aiyar, a public policy scholar.
His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who has improved India’s standing in the world, and credit his pro-business policies with making the economy the world’s fifth-largest.
But a decade of his leadership has also left the country deeply divided. Modi’s critics and opponents say his Hindu-first politics have bred intolerance, hate speech and brazen attacks against the country’s minorities, especially Muslims, who comprise 14% of the population.
India’s economy, one of the fastest-growing, has become more unequal under Modi. While stock markets reach record-highs and millionaires multiply, youth unemployment has soared, with only a small portion of Indians benefitting from the economic boom.
The country’s democracy, Modi’s critics say, is faltering under his government, which has increasingly wielded strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents, squeeze independent media and quash dissent. The government has rejected such accusations and say democracy is flourishing.
As polls opened in mid-April, a confident BJP initially focused its campaign on “Modi’s guarantees,” highlighting the economic and welfare achievements that his party says have reduced poverty. With him at the helm, “India will become a developed nation by 2047,” Modi repeated in rally after rally.
But the campaign turned increasingly shrill, as Modi ramped up polarizing rhetoric that targeted the Muslim minority, a tactic seen to energize his core Hindu majority voters.
His opposition, the INDIA alliance led by the Congress party, has attacked Modi over his Hindu nationalist politics. It hopes to benefit from the simmering economic discontent, and its campaign has rallied around issues of joblessness, inflation and inequality.
But the broad alliance of over a dozen political parties has been beset by ideological differences and defections, raising questions over their effectiveness. Meanwhile, the alliance has also claimed they’ve been unfairly targeted, pointing to a spree of raids, arrests and corruption investigations against their leaders by federal agencies they say are politically motivated. The government has denied this.
Another victory would cement Modi as one of the country’s most popular and important leaders. It would follow a thumping win in 2019, when the BJP won 303 out of 543 parliamentary seats.
Election officials carry sealed electronic voting machines at a counting center in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India on Tuesday started counting votes from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Election officials prepare to start count votes at a counting center in Guwahati, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India on Tuesday started counting votes from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
Election officials open an electronic voting machine to count votes at a counting center in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India on Tuesday started counting votes from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
A polling official tick marks on a chart after the first round of counting of votes at a counting center in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India on Tuesday started counting votes from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
A Congress party supporter prays as others watch the live telecast of proceedings of vote counting at their party headquarters in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Election officials open an electronic voting machine to count votes at a counting center in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India on Tuesday started counting votes from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A Congress party supporter cheers as he watches live telecast of the proceedings of vote counting at their party headquarters in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Election officials open an electronic voting machine to count votes at a counting center in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India on Tuesday started counting votes from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Election officials open an electronic voting machine to count votes at a counting center in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India on Tuesday started counting votes from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Polling agents of political parties watch officials count the votes at a counting center in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India on Tuesday started counting votes from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Policemen stand guard outside a counting center in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India's marathon election enters its final phase on Tuesday with the counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Policemen stand guard outside a counting center in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. India's marathon election enters its final phase on Tuesday with the counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Police officers stand guard at the entrance of a vote counting centre in Ahmedabad, India, Monday, June 3, 2024. India's marathon election enters its final phase on Tuesday with the counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Election officials leave with sealed electronic voting machines at the end of the polling of the seventh and final phase of national elections in Varanasi, India, Saturday, June 1, 2024. India's marathon election enters its final phase on Tuesday with the counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
A woman watches an exit poll on television at her home in Mumbai, India, Saturday, June 1, 2024. India's marathon election enters its final phase on Tuesday with the counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Police officers stand guard at a vote counting centre ahead of the counting for Indian parliamentary elections in Mumbai, India, Monday, June 3, 2024. India's marathon election enters its final phase on Tuesday with the counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
