Mary Altaffer/AP
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green on Wednesday weighed in on the ongoing feud between New York Knicks owner James Dolan and former Knicks great Charles Oakley, calling Dolan’s behavior akin to a “slave master mentality.”
“You doing it for me, it’s all good. You doing it against me — you speaking out against my organization — it’s not good anymore? That’s a slave mentality. A slave master mentality. That’s ridiculous,” Green said on his“Dray Day” podcast.
“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,” he added.
Oakley was arrested after being ejected from Madison Square Garden at a Knicks game last week. He was later banned indefinitely from the arena by Dolan, who also suggested Oakley had issues with both anger and alcohol.
Earlier this week, Dolan lifted Oakley’s ban after the NBA stepped in and hosted a detente with Dolan, Oakley, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and Michael Jordan.
Still, Oakley has maintained he won’t go to a game until Dolan gives a public apology.
Green is far from the only person in the NBA world to take Oakley’s side. In fact, there has been practically universal support for Oakley as a result of his feud with the Knicks owner.
“That’s not something that you say to the world. That’s not classy at all,” Green added. “It’s not OK for you to go say to the world as a multi-billion dollar organization. How can you even pin that on someone? Just throw that out there. That’s grimy. I think that’s wrong.”