Warriors forward Draymond Green sounded off on New York Knicks owner James Dolan, saying he runs his operation with a “slave master mentality,” in light of the recent controversy surrounding the arrest and forced removal of former Knick Charles Oakley from Madison Square Garden during a game last week.
“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 on Uninterrupted.
“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’s comments are in reference to the belief that Oakley was removed by Dolan for negative comments the former player has made regarding the state of the Knicks organization over the past several years.
The Knicks say Oakley was ejected after being verbally abusive to security. Oakley, was charged with three counts of misdemeanor assault for his physical confrontation with security, but claims that he was approached by security while sitting in his seat. Oakley says he became angry when security told him they had orders to remove him from the building but would not disclose any further information.
Dolan has subsequently claimed that Oakley may have a drinking problem that led to the incident. A Knicks PR statement following the incident, which many believe was written by Dolan himself, said the organization “hopes (Oakley) gets some help soon.” Oakley denies he has any issues with alcohol.
“That’s not something that you say to the world. That’s not classy at all,” Green said. “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.”