MSG Gets Major Win in Ninth Year of Charles Oakley Legal Battle

Charles Oakley’s longstanding lawsuit against Madison Square Garden over his alleged assault by security guards during a 2017 Knicks home game has been dismissed on summary judgment, although the former NBA power forward’s attorneys intend to seek an “immediate jury trial.”

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Sullivan issued a 12-page ruling late Friday night, granting summary judgment in favor of MSG. The case was originally filed in September 2017, about seven months after Oakley was ejected from MSG during a game between the Knicks and Clippers. The longtime Knick claimed he was assaulted by security guards. 

Knicks owner James Dolan, who was sitting near Oakley during the incident, was originally named as a defendant when Oakley sued in 2017. Sullivan dismissed all claims against Dolan in 2020, and Oakley’s surviving assault and battery claims are against MSG and its related entities. 

Dolan briefly banned Oakley from the arena in 2017, but he retreated from the ban later that year, and Oakley has been permitted to attend games since. Oakley has refused to go to Knicks games at the Garden until Dolan apologizes.

According to the judge, new evidence that has been introduced—including videos, sworn declarations from eyewitnesses, and multiple depositions—confirms Oakley was not assaulted.

“Indeed, even though the alleged assault occurred in the middle of Madison Square Garden and in front of nineteen thousand fans and scores of video cameras, Oakley concedes that there is no other witness beside himself who says that he was pushed to the ground,” the judge wrote. 

“No rational jury could conclude that Oakley reasonably feared himself at risk of wrongful physical contact—let alone that MSG intended to stir such an apprehension,” the judge added.

MSG issued a statement applauding the ruling and threatening to sue Oakley’s lawyers. “For more than nine years, Mr. Oakley’s lawyers have pursued claims they knew were false,” the statement said. “Those claims have now been dismissed by the court in their entirety—for the third time,” it said, referring to Sullivan’s dismissal of Oakley’s original complaint in 2020, his 2021 summary judgment ruling in MSG’s favor, and Friday’s ruling. Oakley previously appealed those two Sullivan rulings to the Second Circuit. The appeals revived his assault and battery claims, which were sent back to federal court twice but have now been dismissed again.

 “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.”

The case is not technically closed, as two motions from Oakley remain pending. But Friday’s ruling is a big win for MSG on the primary claim in the lawsuit. 

Oakley’s attorneys told Front Office Sports in a statement Friday night that they are not done fighting. “We are disappointed with the Court’s rulings,” the statement said. “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.”

The ruling represents the latest loss for Oakley in the case. Last October, he was ordered to pay Dolan’s company roughly $642,000 in attorney fees over the company’s quest to get Oakley’s deleted text messages. Oakley was scolded by the judge for not keeping text messages from the aftermath of his arena ejection.