Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green backed off his comment Friday that New York Knicks owner James Dolan used “slave master mentality” toward former Knicks legend Charles Oakley.
Green said remarks on his Tuesday “Dray Day” podcast “came off the wrong way” in criticising Dolan for his role after Oakley’s arrest led to him being banned from Madison Square Garden.
“I never said James Dolan has a slave master mentality,” Green told ESPN Radio. “I said when you look at something and someone is doing something for someone and all of a sudden they can’t anymore, that falls under the slave mentality.
“I can’t say James Dolan is a racist. I don’t know James Dolan. Honestly, if he walked past me right now, I wouldn’t know who he is.”
Green said the Knicks benefited from Oakley as a player for many years but was then mistreated.
“You doing it for me, it’s all good. You doing it against me — you speaking out against my organisation — it’s not good anymore? That’s a slave mentality. A slave-master mentality. That’s ridiculous.”
Oakley, 53, had a altercation with security, which forcibly removed him from Madison Square Garden during a game.
Oakley was arrested and charged with three misdemeanour counts of assault and one misdemeanour count of trespassing.
Oakley’s ban from the arena lasted less than a week after it was lifted by the Knicks on Tuesday, a day after NBA commissioner Adam Silver met with Dolan and Oakley with Michael Jordan joining by conference call.
Green still maintains Dolan was in the wrong for how he treated Oakley.
“I thought some of the things said about Charles Oakley — from James Dolan, from the New York Knicks’ Twitter handle — some of the things said about Oakley was wrong, and I still feel that way,” Green said. “However, I think that was a mistake by Dolan, that was a mistake by the Knicks.
“Then I think I followed up and made the same mistake they made about what they said about Oakley, about how it came off about what I said about James Dolan. Like I said, I don’t know (Dolan). I could never say he’s a racist or he has a slave owner’s mentality. I don’t know if he has that. That’s just how that situation looked to me from the outside looking in.”
Westbrook-Durant drama sparks All-Star tensions
Once and future NBA teammates Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook played down the drama Friday of hard feelings over Durant leaving behind Oklahoma City and
Westbrook to play for Golden
State.
Players gathered in New Orleans for interviews to hype Sunday’s 66th NBA All-Star Game, in which ex-teammates Durant and Westbrook will be reunited on the Western Conference team as it faces the Eastern Conference elite.
Durant has not spoken to Westbrook in the seven months since he signed a free agent deal with the Warriors, the team that beat the Oklahoma City Thunder with Durant and Westbrook in last year’s Western Conference finals.
“I didn’t come here for there to be any drama or have a heart to heart with anyone,” Durant told ESPN of talking to Westbrook this weekend.
“It’s not even something I’m thinking about. If it happens it does. If it doesn’t it’s no big deal. I’m coming here to enjoy the weekend.”
For his part, Westbrook answered every question put to him about being in the same locker room again with Durant with only comments about “Fashion Week” and ignoring the issue altogether.
Westbrook leads the NBA in scoring with 31.1 points a game, ranks third in assists with 10.1 a game and stands 12th in rebounds with 10.5 per contest – putting him on pace to join Oscar Robinson as the only players to average a triple double for an entire NBA campaign.
Durant leads Golden State with 25.8 points and 8.3 rebounds a game, helping the Warriors to the NBA’s best record at the All-Star break at 47-9 while the Thunder rank seventh in the West at 32-25.
Asked if he and the Thunder had moved on from Durant’s departure, Westbrook replied, “What does it look like?”
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green.
