Chris Childs played for the New York Knicks in the mid-1990s, during which time he developed a strong friendship with Charles Oakley – a friendship that continues to this day. Unsurprisingly, Childs was not happy that James Dolan had Oakley handcuffed and arrested at Madison Square Garden in February 2017, seemingly because Oakley had been a vocal critic of Dolan in the past.
Childs was mad at Dolan for the incident, sure, but he was also mad at former Knicks teammates Latrell Sprewell and Larry Johnson for sitting with Dolan at a game just four days after Oakley’s arrest.
“How they treated him when they threw him out the arena affected the way that I think about management,” Childs said on The DA Show. “The way that Dolan is treating the fans, ex-players, having a photo op after Oak [got] thrown out and to have Sprewell at the game sitting by him, LJ at the game – that was so disrespectful to not only Oak, but to me as well. Until that changes, I don’t think that anything positive is going to happen until there’s a change at the top.”
Two days after Oakley’s arrest, Dolan announced that he was banned from Madison Square Garden indefinitely. He also suggested that Oakley had a drinking problem.
That only made it more frustrating to see Sprewell and Johnson sitting next to Dolan a few days later.
“Very much so,” Childs said. “Oak and I talked about it. I’m not sure how I would have behaved if I was there. I probably would have been arrested as well because that’s my teammate, but it’s also my friend. To see none of the guys that played for the Knicks – Patrick [Ewing], I don’t think he spoke on Oak’s behalf; Sprewell showing up when he’s been away from the team for so many years – I knew that was a photo op, but it was really disturbing that all the things that we went through as players on the team, and we’ve had some up-and-downs during that run when we were together, to not support your brother was really disappointed to me.”
The Knicks have won just one playoff series since 2000. Still, many former Knicks players seem hesitant to speak out against Dolan. Oakley did – and he paid the price.
Is that why other former players, by and large, have remained silent?
“If they’re on his payroll, I think they’re scared of losing that income, which I completely understand. I do,” Childs said. “But sometimes you have to stand up for what’s right and what you believe in and money has no cost. It shouldn’t be about that. So by doing what they were doing, everything that is told to us in huddles and on the road in meetings was a lie. I don’t subscribe to that type of behavior when it comes to friendship and people getting mistreated, whether it’s a teammate or whether it’s a woman or whatever. I just don’t subscribe to that. It’s very unfortunate that [Sprewell] allowed himself to be a pawn in that situation.”