Golden State Warriors All-Star Draymond Green is proudly waving the flag for Team Charles Oakley in the former NBA enforcer's war of attrition with New York Knicks owner James Dolan.
While it appears cooler heads have prevailed between the two parties since Oakley's forced removal from Madison Square Garden, with his ban from the building now lifted, Green still feels Dolan's actions before, during, and following the incident were both hypocritical and undeserving of a "legend" who gave so many quality years to the organization as a player.
"First off, this is Charles Oakley. Why is he buying a ticket to the game? If I'm not mistaken, Dolan owned that team when he was playing. It wasn't a problem when he was speaking out then," Green said during a recent appearance on his "Dray Dray" podcast with Bay Area News Group's Marcus Thompson, as transcribed by Yahoo Sports' Ben Rohrbach. "It wasn't a problem when he was protecting their superstars then. So, if it wasn't a problem then, when he was doing it for y'all, why is it all of a sudden now when he's speaking out on something he don't like? And now you want to disown him from your entire organization?
"That's a slave mentality. You're doing it for me, it's all good, but now you're doing it against me - or not necessarily against me, but you're speaking out against my organization - it's not good anymore? That's a slave mentality - a slave-master mentality. That's ridiculous."
Related: Oakley asks Knicks to apologize to fans after ban lifted
Green was also extremely critical of the team's PR department for the statement they released, implying Oakley had undisclosed issues by hoping "he gets some help soon." Even so, Dolan still got the brunt of his displeasure for his role in the matter.
"It was all fine and dandy when he was laying people out, taking fines, and all this stuff for your organization, but now all of a sudden when he says something that he feels, it's a problem," Green added. "I disagree with that. I definitely think, like I said, that that's a slave-master mentality."
After Golden State's 132-110 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday, Green mentioned a disrespectful Thunder fan sitting behind his team's bench who constantly heckled the players, adding how "slave days are over" in reference to the fan making demands.
