Bobcats assistant coach Charles Oakley made a promotional appearance at a store called "K1X" yesterday in SoHo. Media members, as they're wont to do, showed up and asked him questions about the present-day Knicks. Oakley, as he's wont to do, happily supplied them with punchy critical soundbites. Look at all this RIPPING! From the Post:
On Amar'e Stoudemire:
"Amar’e’s good, he’s good in his way," Oakley said yesterday at the launch of his clothing collection at K1X’s store in SoHo. "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."
On Mike D'Antoni's system:
"I don’t think [it can be successful], but that’s his coaching style," Oakley said. "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."
Nice rips, Charles! Click through and read more for some more rips about Isiah Thomas and friends, as well as some sourness over not getting job offers from Isiah Thomas and friends. I would like to fire back at him for ripping and not blasting the Knicks. Blasting is the new ripping, and whoever says otherwise deserves to get blasted.
Anyway, I will always love Oakley, and he and his hard nose are certainly entitled to an opinion about his former team. There's valuable input in there, too: D'Antoni's Knicks have never been particularly tough, and Stoudemire certainly does take a beating. (That Amar'e rip isn't even much of a rip. Your ripping could be better, Charles. This is why you should just blast instead.) These are valid criticisms, and ones that we've heard and made before. That said, I'm not sure what any of this has to do with the "West Coast" versus the "East Coast" in 2011 (or Bentleys versus Volkswagens, for that matter), but I'll take Oak at his word. Also, is New York really a "hard-nosed city"? A lot of people reading this must live in one of the boroughs. Do you guys have particularly rigid proboscises? I was born in New York and go there often, and my nose is certainly very large, but it's also noted for its softness and flexibility. Oh well. Oakley himself clearly has a hard nose, and it takes one to NOSE one!
Feel free to rip or blast Oakley and/or the Knicks and/or me in the comments. I'm going to go bang my nose on stuff.
P.S. Don't forget to vote on the Knicktion! Voting ends at midnight.