Charles Oakley summed Patrick Ewing and the 90s Knicks’ run of bad luck up with a typical Michael Jordan quip in a recent interview.
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One of the reasons that Pat Riley is so revered in basketball history was his ability to inspire talented players to mesh together despite having big individual egos and personalities.
Riley was successful in making that work with the Showtime Lakers alongside Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar first. He then made it work extremely successfully with the New York Knicks.
Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley and John Starks were 3 of the most crucial cogs in this team. The early-90s Knicks played a physical brand of defense, ranking regularly among the top 3 defenses in the league.
Charles Oakley was a big part of that enforcer’s identity as Pat Riley made them the logical successors of the brand of defense employed by the peak Chuck Daly Bad Boys.
Charles Oakley quotes Michael Jordan while describing the early-90s Knicks’ luck
Charles Oakley and Michael Jordan had an amazing relationship right from the Oak Tree’s rookie contract years. Oakley would often act as Jordan’s personal bodyguard as His Airness launched flight assaults on defenses across the league.
While they only played together for 3 years, Oakley and Jordan are close friends in the way movies portray true friends. In Oakley’s words, they’d do everything together.
After MJ retired from basketball, Oakley and his Knicks made it to their first NBA Finals in 21 years. But they lost a close 7-game series. And as real friends try to pacify their mates with banter, Jordan had his characteristic joke for Charles Oakley and co.
“MJ used to always say you were born at the wrong time. He always said it, he was f**king around. So I used to tell him ‘You’re glad David Stern is your next-door neighbour!”
