Charles Oakley is stepping up his campaign against the Knicks and their owner, James Dolan. He’s reportedly made a move since he was barred from Madison Square Garden. It stems from an incident during a 2017 Knicks game. Oakley was ejected from the audience. He was never allowed in the Garden again, the same arena that he dominated for a decade. He’s maintained that the sequence of events was twisted. Now he’s taken it up with the federal legal system to overturn that.

Reuters reported that Oakley has taken his case to a federal judge in Manhattan on Monday, July 7. He claims that MSG and a New York City official serving as one of the stadium’s lawyers should be sanctioned for making “false and baseless” statements on the 2017 incident. The official in question is Randy Mastro, First Deputy Mayor of New York City, who has served as a lawyer for the Garden.

In February 2017, Oakley was attending a Knicks game where he was ejected and arrested for alleged disruptive behavior directed at Dolan. He was initially charged with misdemeanor assault, but those charges were later dropped.

The Knicks legend denies that he was disruptive or had any interaction with Dolan. He claimed he was cheering for the team. He previously sued Dolan for defamation. That lawsuit was dismissed, and he tried again. Now he’s taking a different legal route.

It comes right after MSG last month filed its own sanctions motion against Oakley and his lawyers at Wigdor LLP and Petrillo Klein & Boxer. The arena’s legal team is accusing them of pushing an alleged “false narrative” about Oakley’s ejection. They also asked the judge to dismiss Oakley’s previous lawsuit for good.

Charles Oakley’s strained relationship with Knicks ownership

Currently, Charles Oakley and his wife, Angela, are turning it up on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, where they currently reside. Angela opened up about their brief separation in 2017 on the show. Their marriage is stronger than ever, but Oak’s relationship with his old team is rocky in an eight-year lawsuit.

Oakley alleged that MSG and its lawyers “lied to the court repeatedly” about whether Dolan was involved in Oakley’s televised removal. Oakley claims that MSG denied that the Knicks’ owner was involved, while Dolan reportedly testified in a deposition that he was.

He wants Mastro to be censured and take an ethics class, alleging, “lightly files statements that are objectively untrue, and which he knows to be untrue. In order to cover his tracks, he then lashes out with strategic sanctions motions against his adversaries.” So far, Mastro and MSG have not responded to Oakley’s second lawsuit. Mastro left his previous law firm in March to join the mayor’s office, but still represents the Garden.

In a 19-year NBA career, including a stint with the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls, Charles Oakley was the ‘Big Apple’ fan favorite as the Knicks power forward from 1988 to 1998. Since 2017, however, he’s more infamous for his feud with Dolan and the MSG.

One of the things that offended Oakley was when the Knicks’ social media page expressed hope he “gets some help soon.” He felt they were implying he had a substance abuse problem and sued them for defamation. In 2024, he further filed claims of alleged a—— and b—— against MSG and its related entities.

Last month, he also called out his former teammate, Patrick Ewing, for still attending the Knicks game instead of showing some solidarity towards him.