Ex-NBA player Charles Oakley is not giving up his fight against New York Knicks owner James Dolan.
For seven years, Oakley has sued over his infamous ejection from Madison Square Garden during an altercation in 2017. Most of the case has been thrown out, but now Dolan has been ordered to give sworn testimony in Oakley’s civil case.
In the latest twist, Manhattan federal court judge Richard Sullivan ordered Dolan, 69, to sit for a deposition to give his first-hand account of how Oakley, 60, ended up hauled out of the arena in handcuffs after tussling with security guards during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Dolan had a courtside seat to the action here,” Sullivan wrote in a nine-page ruling on Tuesday. “He likely possesses relevant knowledge that cannot be obtained from other witnesses.”
The judge added that, “most importantly,” the Garden has “failed to convincingly show” that letting Oakley’s lawyers grill Dolan “will result in harassment or potential disruption” of the arena’s business.
Oakley, a bruising power forward who played for the Knicks from 1988 to 1998, first sued Dolan and MSG in September 2017. A large chunk of his case has been dismissed over the years — but his claim that the arena used an “unreasonable amount of force” to oust him is still pending.
Oakley argues in his suit that he was being unfairly targeted for making jabs at Dolan, who was also attending the game, while MSG personnel claimed at the time that Oakley was drunk and belligerent.
Dolan will be able to testify about an alleged conversation he had with a security guard moments before Oakley was removed from the building, the judge wrote.
“At the most basic level, Dolan was an eyewitness to the removal of Oakley and can provide
personal observations as to Oakley’s behavior that evening and the force used to remove him,” the ruling reads.
All claims against Dolan himself have been tossed from the case.
A spokesperson for MSG Sports said in a statement Wednesday that the bid to depose the billionaire is “just another example of how the legal maneuverings of Charles Oakley and his lawyers continue to waste the time and resources of everyone involved.”
Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for Oakley, told The Post on Wednesday that, “Based on his performance at his deposition in the Anucha Browne Sanders case, I am very much looking forward to questioning Dolan in our offices in the coming weeks.”
The judge also ordered MSG to produce any emails sent by Dolan about the Oakley episode between February 8, 2017 to March 1, 2017, while swatting away Oakley’s bid to receive four years’ worth of emails instead, which the court called “excessive.”
Oakley is suing for unspecified damages.
