Report: Knicks owner fires MSG security chief after Oakley debacle
The ongoing saga between the New York Knicks and Charles Oakley took another turn on Friday morning. Team owner and Madison Square Garden chairman James L. Dolan has reportedly fired the head of security at the World’s Most Famous Arena after an embarrassing Wednesday incident that saw the longtime former Knicks forward clash with security during a nationally televised game.
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From Murray Weiss of DNAinfo New York:
Frank Benedetto, the senior vice president for security at the Madison Square Garden Company, was fired Friday morning, source said. The move comes two days after Oakley became embroiled in a pushing and shoving match with security personnel just a few rows behind Dolan’s courtside seats and was hauled off and arrested by the NYPD in front of TV cameras.
“We don’t comment on employees that have left the company,” Madison Square Garden Company spokesman Barry Watkins said Friday.
Before coming to MSG in September of 2016, Benedetto spent 27 years with the U.S. Secret Service, including the last five as special agent in charge of, among other things, providing “24/7 protection of President Obama’s Chicago residence,” according to his LinkedIn profile. He managed security for the 2012 NATO Summit in Chicago and the 2013 and 2014 Chicago Marathons … and yet, six months after his arrival, he’s out, the first of what sources told Weiss could be multiple heads to roll as “Dolan, who is known to rule his financial empire with an iron fist, may take further action against other employees over the flap.”
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To this point, the Knicks have been crystal clear about placing blame for the incident during the first quarter of New York’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers squarely on the shoulders of the 53-year-old Oakley, whom ESPN’s cameras captured shoving what a Garden security guard near courtside before being hauled off by a slew of security personnel, taken away from the court, and eventually arrested and charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal trespassing.
“Charles Oakley came to the game tonight and behaved in a highly inappropriate and completely abusive manner,” the Knicks wrote in a statement released minutes after the incident took place on Wednesday. “He has been ejected and is currently being arrested by the New York City Police Department. He was a great Knick and we hope he gets some help soon.”
On Thursday, after Oakley had been released by police, he gave multiple interviews insisting he hadn’t said a word to Dolan, whom Oakley says has refused to speak or meet with him over the years about the possibility of returning to the franchise in some capacity, and had done nothing to warrant encircling by MSG security prior to tempers flaring and the situation erupting into physicality. (It’s worth noting that fan-shot video published Thursday by the New York Post seems to indicate that the eruption came only after Oakley fell to the ground while one of the several security guards crowding him held his left arm.)
“Send a New York cop to tell Oakley he’s gotta leave. Escort me out of the building. I have to respect that,” Oakley said during an interview on ESPN Radio’s “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on Thursday. “It was a cop there. Every time he asked me something, I did it. I did it. I did it. You can call the precinct, and I told them there. It was the other guys. They went over bounds, for no reason.”
The Knicks responded to Oakley’s media blitz — and to an outpouring of support for the 19-year NBA veteran from past and present–day players — by issuing an “updated statement” Thursday afternoon that doubled down and essentially called Oakley a bald-faced liar.
“There are dozens of security staff, employees and NYPD that witnessed Oakley’s abusive behavior,” the Knicks wrote. “It started when he entered the building and continued until he was arrested and left the building. Every single statement we have received is consistent in describing his actions. Everything he said since the incident is pure fiction.”
Which begs the question:
Why fire someone if it was all Oakley's fault? https://t.co/VFOE4wGTXQ
— Harvey Araton (@HarveyAraton) February 10, 2017
Oakley admitted Thursday night in an interview with New York’s FOX5 that he did have a “couple drinks” before attending the game, but said he “ain’t had no drinks in the Garden.” During a Friday morning interview on ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike” show, he disputed the notion that his behavior was in any way as erratic or abusive as the Knicks claimed.
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Given the near-immediate appearance of fan-shot video of the Oakley incident on social media, the Knicks’ claim that Oakley was in a destructive rage from the second he entered the building to the moment he got within four rows of the alleged object of his ire does seem to strain credulity.
“How can I come in there in four minutes and tear the whole Garden up?” Oakley said during his “Mike and Mike” appearance. “It don’t make sense.”
On one hand, little about this whole mess makes any sense. On the other, though, we’re talking about the Knicks. Nothing could be more reasonable or plausible than James Dolan and company taking one tiny spark and turning it into a raging wildfire.
Fans at Madison Square Garden for Thursday’s NHL game between the New York Rangers and Nashville Predators rained down “CHAR-LES OAK-LEY!” and “FREE OAKLEY!” chants, which you’d have to imagine didn’t exactly tickle Lord Jim. It ought to be fascinating to see what pours out of MSG’s bleachers on Friday night, when the Knicks take on the Denver Nuggets, and where this perfectly ludicrous story heads next.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
