I just had to let him know! He was dead wrong. I just looked at him the whole time, didn’t say nothing. So when he come in there and pushed the button, he looked like he was ‘bout to pass out. I get in the elevator and hide in the corner. I see him get out the car, but he don’t see me. I’ve seen him at Jordan parties, I saw him at a hotel at 59th and Central Park at the Ritz Carlton. You don’t tell anybody that you got some boys to come get me. ” He said, “This my city!” I don’t care whose city it is. He's gonna tell me, “I’m gonna call my boys. He said “I’mma make these NBA boys pay for it.” He was out of order. I told Eddie, He ain’t no f’n good! He gon’ bring me the check. over the edge," leading him to push Mathis "real hard."] Eddie Levert tried to calm me down, “Oak, Oak.” No, was being disrespectful. I was like, "Who you talking to?” He says, “You.” I was like, "Man, get out of my face!” Derrick says, “Oak, just chill.” No! You tell him to chill. Your people drinking like it ain't no more water in this place.” So we’re just standing there talking, having a good time. He had a restaurant in downtown Detroit called “Sweet Georgia Brown.” I walk in, there’s Judge Mathis, Queen Latifah, Tavis Smiley…Kwame Kilpatrick, Eddie Levert from the O'Jays. After the show, Derrick Coleman was there. I said, "Man, I told you to give me three to five minutes.", I said, "Let's get out of here." So I leave the O’Jays. To be clear, this isn’t Judge Mathis, right? Before you even get to the story of that fight, you got into a separate fight on the same day? Now he wants a new generation of NBA fans to know his story, and so Oakley sat down with GQ to discuss his career highlights, his new memoir, his lifelong beef with Charles Barkley, how he once tried to beat up Judge Greg Mathis over a $1,500 bar tab, and who his favorite big men in the NBA are right now. In more recent years, Oakley has been in the news for his ongoing dispute with Knicks owner James Dolan, who once forcibly kicked him out of Madison Square Garden, leading Oakley to file a civil lawsuit. The Knicks never won a championship, but no one forgot Oakley as he played his last days above the border in Canada, still pushing and shoving players like a big kid on a playground. When he got traded to the Knicks, his star exploded in New York as the face of a famously physical roster built by Pat Riley. There was Oakley on Michael Jordan’s Bulls teams, duking it out without anyone who misstepped on a nightly basis.
Oakley’s willingness to stand up for himself and his team – he says he’s nowhere near a bully, but won’t be pushed around – made him one of the biggest fan favorites of the nineties era of hoops. In his NBA career with Michael Jordan’s Bulls, Pat Riley’s Knicks and Vince Carter’s Raptors, Oakley was both a terror on the boards and the ultimate protector of his teammates, and now he’s published a memoir, The Last Enforcer, whose title speaks for itself. And this is the best compliment you could possibly give him.
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