{"id":2095376,"date":"2026-08-15T18:21:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T15:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2095376"},"modified":"2026-08-15T18:21:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T15:21:02","slug":"charles-oakleys-lawsuit-against-madison-square-garden-dismissed-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2095376","title":{"rendered":"Charles Oakley\u2019s lawsuit against Madison Square Garden dismissed \u2014 again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A federal judge dismissed Charles Oakley\u2019s lawsuit against Madison Square Garden<\/a> on Friday, saying that the former New York Knicks forward did not prove he was assaulted when he was removed from a game as a fan in 2017.<\/p>\n

Oakley was handcuffed and arrested after an altercation with security while sitting near owner James Dolan during a Knicks game against the LA Clippers on Feb. 8, 2017. Oakley filed several claims against MSG, which were dismissed in February 2020. However, after an appeal, Oakley\u2019s assault-and-battery claim remained.<\/p>\n

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In Circuit Judge Richard J. Sullivan\u2019s opinion and order released Friday, he stated, \u201cAmple evidence \u2014 including videos from multiple angles and the unanimous testimony of every witness (even, to some extent, Oakley himself) \u2014 shows that Oakley had a reasonable opportunity to depart the Garden, that he instead resorted to physical violence, and that he was never pushed to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

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{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIn short, no rational jury could conclude that Oakley reasonably feared himself at risk of wrongful physical contact \u2014 let alone that MSG intended to stir such an apprehension.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its arguments, MSG used video evidence and previous testimony that Oakley was not assaulted.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor more than nine years, Mr. Oakley\u2019s lawyers have pursued claims they knew were false,\u201d MSG said in a statement. \u201cThose claims have now been dismissed by the Court in their entirety \u2014 for a third time. We are pursuing legal action against Douglas Wigdor, and his unscrupulous law firm, to hold them accountable for years of frivolous litigation and their blatant abuse of the judicial system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In a statement released to The Athletic<\/em> on Saturday, the law firm of Wigdor LLP said, \u201cWe are disappointed with the Court\u2019s rulings. We believe there are conflicting accounts and only a jury can decide what exactly happened. We are hopeful that the Second Circuit will agree for a third time and remand the case for an immediate jury trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oakley, a fan favorite, spent 10 seasons with the Knicks and was a significant part of the team\u2019s success in the 1990s. He has been absent from MSG during the Knicks\u2019 recent postseason success, which culminated in this year\u2019s NBA championship.<\/p>\n

Oakley also played for the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge dismissed Charles Oakley\u2019s lawsuit against Madison Square Garden on Friday, saying that the former New York Knicks forward did not prove he was assaulted when he was removed from a game as a fan in 2017. Oakley was handcuffed and arrested after an altercation with security while sitting near owner James Dolan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2095376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2095376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2095376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2095376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2095376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}