Oak Speaks…YOU WILL LISTEN

Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 6:34 am

Charles Oakley was interviewed by The Star recently and, as he is apt to do, Oak dropped a few interesting nuggets. Never at a shortage of words, Oakley waxed about his career, the FBI NBA gambling probe, and books. Here’s the highlights from the article with my thoughts in italics:

On his life currently:
“I’m doing the rock star life right now…Travelling, chilling, hangin’ out.”
Not a bad way to live life man…oh to have the life of an ex NBA player for just one day…ok maybe a week…maybe a month.

On a possible comeback:
“I’m not coming back cheap.” “If you read this article and you think you can get me cheap, there’s another thought coming.”
Who wouldn’t want to pay top dollar for a 43 year old bruiser who hasn’t played in 3 years? ERNIE GRUNFELD GET ON THE PHONE QUICK! I think the old man should just stick to washing cars

On Ton Donaghy:
“If the guy was fixing games, he was wrong. If players are getting money to win games, lose games, they’re wrong.”
Way to take a bold stance on this one Oak.

On Coaching in the NBA:
“There’s a lot of less talent for smarts in the game, but a lot of talent for athletic ability.”
Wha??

On his upcoming book:
“I’m not pulling any punches, true stories. It ain’t one of those Charles Barkley fake books, it’s a Charles Oakley book, it’s not an O.J. book, it’s an Oakley book.”
This sounds more like a Jose Canseco book to me and I will of course be reading it. Let me stick it on my Amazon shopping cart right now!

Good article, a little odd in that it says that Oakley is 6’3 when he’s clearly 6’9, but it does provide a great chance to show off some of the better Oakley quotables from the past:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t break it.”
“[Entourages] are like contracts. Everybody’s got one. Some are just bigger than others.”
“It was like the police trying to stop a shootout: You gotta have your gun out. Don’t go out there with your hands down.”
“Nowadays, these young guys, anytime you say something, you’re picking on them. Back in the day, half of these guys wouldn’t get in the league…The league is just like daycare.”
“Oh well, that’s basketball. It used to be basketball. I don’t know what it is now.”

From The Star

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