New York Knicks owner James Dolan extended an olive branch of sorts to Charles Oakley after temporarily banning the former Knick from Madison Square Garden, but Oakley is a long way from forgiving Dolan, who had him forcibly removed from MSG and later accused him of having an alcohol problem just over a week ago.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green recently equated Dolan's treatment of Oakley with a "slave-owner mentality," and Oakley didn't refute that when asked about it in a phone interview with Sports Illustrated's Maggie Gray on Thursday.
"He's definitely a control freak," Oakley said. "He's got everybody in the Garden on pins and needles."
Oakley went on to compare Dolan to former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling - who was forced to sell the team and banned from the NBA for life after being caught on tape making racist comments in 2014 - but said the league is allowing Dolan to get away with it.
"The other owners know this, that's the bad thing about it," Oakley said. "They're going to let this end up happening like (what) happened to the L.A. Clippers. It's that bad, but they won't talk about it. It's that bad."
Asked more pointedly if he thinks Dolan is a racist, Oakley didn't say yes or no. "This man's been around a long time," he explained. "I ain't heard nothing good about him."
Oakley was charged with assault for getting physical with the security guards who removed him from MSG, but he's not interested in having his charges dropped and being invited back to the Garden if it's just a publicity stunt or a sympathy case.
"I'd rather go to jail than for this to be (them) saying they did something for me," he said.
"I'd rather go to jail and just do two or three years for my assault case and come out and be a better person. Don't give me something now because everything is bad. That's what’s wrong. We cover stuff up because of money and power. This is a people issue. People see this."
