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Charles Oakley smacks around Knicks, D’Antoni for fun

chares-oakley

We told you the other day how Charles Oakley piled on LeBron James, joining a long line of former players and fans who do that (Charles Barkley is their front man).

But that was just part of a whole interview of Oakley being Oakley, which you can find at SLAM.

One other part of interest was Oakley on his former team, the Knicks. Which he says can’t win right now, not with Mike D’Antoni’s style of play.

“I don’t think so, but that’s his coaching style. They knew when they signed him — When you go buy a Bentley, you know it’s not a Volkswagen. When they signed him, they knew what they were getting. That conversation should be dead, because it’s a West Coast offense playing in a hard-nosed city. You always give somebody a chance to prove themselves. I mean, this is his fourth year. He’s had a lot of time. I think it’s just more half-court offense, and they need the big, tough guy. He don’t want to play that way, but finesse, it’s not gonna work.”

About Amare Stoudemire:

“Amar’e is good, he’s good in his way. He’s a West Coast player trying to translate to the East Coast. And the longer he plays in the East, the more his body’s gonna get damaged, because he’s got to take a beating now.”

That’s part of why Mike Woodson was brought in — to change the team’s defense and perceptions, and to find a way to make D’Antoni’s successful offense win in New York. Of course, it won pretty well in Phoenix, they were one Robert Horry hip check away from the NBA finals. But then again, the Suns had really good personnel around their star point guard, so the system worked. It’s more about the players than the system. Always has been, always will be.