Charles Oakley adds Patrick Ewing, Bernard King to Knicks enemies list

Charles Oakley is taking a break in his feud with James Dolan and zeroing in instead on several prominent former Knicks. Oakley, the longtime former Knick who hasn’t been back at the Garden since his infamous arrest there in February of 2017, said he wanted to “smack” Bernard King and faulted Patrick Ewing’s lack of …

Charles Oakley is taking a break in his feud with James Dolan and zeroing in instead on several prominent former Knicks.

Oakley, the longtime former Knick who hasn’t been back at the Garden since his infamous arrest there in February of 2017, said he wanted to “smack” Bernard King and faulted Patrick Ewing’s lack of leadership for the team never being able to win a title in his day.

“He never put us on his back like he should have because every adversity he ducked away from,” Oakley said of Ewing on CBS Sports Radio. “He gave the same f–king answer after every 82 games of the year.”

Patrick Ewing (left) and Charles OakleyAFP via Getty Images

Oakley, 56, called Ewing “high maintenance” and said everything revolved around the Hall of Fame player who now coaches at Georgetown.

“You got to be special to play with Patrick,” Oakley said. “You had to do so much out of your ordinary just to be on the team, and that hurt us sometimes. As a team, we’re supposed to be close and together. It wasn’t that. We had to make sure he was happy. He didn’t care if we [were] happy or not. That’s a sad situation, and I see why the Knicks won’t give him a job. He treated them bad – inside out. Chris [Childs] will tell you. He was tough to play with, but he wasn’t no problem to me because I understand. ‘Mase’ [Anthony Mason] had a problem with it because Mase always hollered and cussed at him.”

Oakley, a vocal critic of Dolan and the Knicks, was handcuffed and arrested during a game on Feb. 8, 2017 at the Garden and banned by Dolan, who suggested he had a drinking problem. The two are still embroiled in a lawsuit brought by Oakley against the MSG chairman. The game after the incident, Latrell Spreewell, who hadn’t been seen around the franchise since getting traded in 2003, showed up and sat next to Dolan. King was there next to him as well.

“I just don’t want to be around these guys,” Oakley said. “A lot of guys I played with, I just lost respect for them because I went to war for them. I protected them, from Patrick on down. Patrick just spoke up two weeks ago about this. But I could have gotten sentenced in jail for 20 years. Three years later, it’s over with really. It’s a PR stunt.”

Submit your Knicks questions here to be answered in an upcoming Post mailbag

Childs made similar sentiments recently, calling Sprewell “a pawn,” in the long-standing feud. As for King, he told Oakley his wife wanted to go to a game, and that was why he was in attendance that night. Oakley hasn’t forgiven him.

“I wanted to smack Bernard. Serious,” he said. “I lost so much respect for him. I can’t even speak to him.”