TMZ Sports is reporting that NBA legend Charles Oakley rejected a plea deal Friday on misdemeanor assault and other charges when he was arrested and ejected from a NY Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.
Oakley, 53, is accused of striking a security guard in the February fracas. Prosecutors had said that two other people who intervened were pushed and received cuts.
Oakley was offered a deal called an Adjournment Contemplation Dismissal which means if he stayed out of trouble for six months, the arrest would be erased from his record. Also, he would not have to plead guilty to any crime.
But Oakley rejected the deal, choosing to go to trial.
In an earlier court hearing, prosecutors read into the record a statement Oakley made after his arrest alleging that Knicks owner James Dolan kept him under watch for no reason.
"Every time I come to the Garden, Dolan has security guards following me," Oakley said, according to the prosecutors. "Every time I come to the Garden it's a problem. I buy my own ticket. I don't want to feel like I owe them anything. I had a couple of drinks before the game but nothing at the game."
The former NBA enforcer told The Associated Press in an interview this week that he had no regrets over his behavior that night that led him getting handcuffed near an arena exit as he waited for police to arrive.
"I would have done everything just the same way," Oakley said by phone. "I didn't do nothing. I was only in the arena five minutes. I didn't know you could get in that much trouble in five minutes."
Oakley played for the Knicks from 1988 to 1998.
With the Associated Press