NBA Has Hang-Ups Over Oakley Incident

Only days after NBA Commissioner David Stern said he hoped for “a very elegant second half of the season,” Charles Oakley of the Washington Wizards threatened Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry during a shoot-around Wednesday at Staples Center, continuing a pattern of aggression stemming from an incident more than two years ago in which Oakley slugged Jeff McInnis in a dispute over a woman.

Oakley had to be restrained Wednesday by, among others, Michael Jordan, the embodiment of the stylish player Stern hoped to see more of in the latter part of a season that so far has featured a number of embarrassing incidents on and off the court.

The sad fact is that the NBA, the league of Jordan and Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson and Julius Erving, has a dirty secret and it’s not eager to publicly address the increasing incidents of cartoonish thuggery.

In words that clearly reflect a league in denial, Oakley told a Washington Post reporter Thursday after the Wizards’ practice at Salt Lake City, “Didn’t nothing happen. If something happened, I probably wouldn’t have played last night.”

Efforts to reach Stu Jackson, the league’s punishment czar, were unsuccessful. A telephone call was referred to the league’s media relations department. Brian McIntyre, the NBA’s senior vice president for basketball communications, angrily hung up on a Times reporter seeking comment. A follow-up call seeking comment from Stern through McIntyre was not returned as of early Thursday evening.

A source familiar with the situation indicated the league’s investigation of the confrontation was “ongoing,” although Washington Coach Doug Collins said after the Wizards’ victory Wednesday over the Clippers that the league had told him Oakley would not face disciplinary action.

“We’ve got to stop the whining, stop the complaining and play the game,” Stern had said Saturday during his annual state-of-the-league summit with reporters. “And that applies to everybody -- commissioners, coaches, team executives, players and referees. Everybody has been sort of forewarned here at the All-Star break, and we’re anticipating a very elegant second half of the season.”

Instead, Oakley provided another inelegant moment to a list that has included:

* A fight between the Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors that spilled from the court to the corridor outside the locker rooms and into the parking lot, with Golden State’s Chris Mills blocking the Portland bus with his SUV and challenging the Trail Blazers to a rematch. Police were summoned to provide an escort for the bus to the Oakland airport.

* A loading-dock confrontation between Portland’s Rasheed Wallace and three officials after a game the Trail Blazers had won at the Rose Garden.

* A shoving incident between Utah Coach Jerry Sloan and a referee that resulted in a seven-game suspension for Sloan.

* Indiana’s Ron Artest serving a suspension for taunting Miami Coach Pat Riley and Heat players and fans during a game at Miami.

* Riley accusing referees of delighting in his team’s struggles, drawing fines twice this season for his critical comments of the officiating.

As Fran Blinebury, columnist for the Houston Chronicle, recently noted, “Through the first three-plus months of the season, about the only case of misbehavior we haven’t seen is someone biting an appendage. The NBA is rapidly turning into a game gone mad. This has become an angry place.”

In this latest case, Oakley apparently blamed Gentry for reporting the incident with McInnis to the league, which suspended Oakley for three games and fined him $15,000. Never mind that dozens of onlookers saw Oakley, listed at 6 feet 9 and 245 pounds, walk over to and punch an unsuspecting McInnis, 6-4 and 190, seated on the Clipper bench.

McInnis, now with the Trail Blazers, was unavailable for comment Thursday.

By one estimate from a league source, Wednesday’s was the sixth serious incident involving Oakley and the Clippers that has been reported to the league office, starting with the original altercation Dec. 1, 2001 at Toronto.

Meanwhile, Gentry hoped to downplay the confrontation, which was witnessed by as many as 23 people, according to one eyewitness. At least a portion of the ensuing scuffle, as Oakley was held off by coaches and players, Jordan among them, was captured on videotape by a local television station.

Gentry and the Clippers declined further comment Thursday, preferring to let the issue die rather than risk further hostility by Oakley.

According to several onlookers, the Clipper players had left the court after a short pregame workout Wednesday morning and only Gentry and a few assistants, including Dennis Johnson, remained when Jordan, Collins and Wizard assistant Patrick Ewing walked onto the court.

As the group engaged in a friendly conversation -- Gentry and Collins are good friends from their days on the staff of the Detroit Pistons -- Oakley and other Washington players emerged from the tunnel that leads to the court from the visitor’s locker room.

Seeing Gentry, Oakley began to threaten him while walking toward him. Jordan, Johnson, Collins, Ewing and others restrained Oakley before he could reach Gentry. An eyewitness said Gentry never spoke to Oakley or responded to his profane threats.

The incident immediately was reported to the NBA offices in New York, and arena and Clipper security personnel briefly considered banning Oakley from Staples Center while awaiting a decision from the league on Oakley’s eligibility for the game.

Later, after the Wizards’ bus had arrived for that night’s game against the Clippers, Jack Haley, a former teammate of Oakley with the Chicago Bulls and now a commentator for Fox Sports Net, approached Oakley with an interview request. Oakley dismissed Haley with a string of profanities.

A Times columnist witnessed the incident.

And that’s the trouble with the NBA these days, everyone else sees what the league doesn’t wish to see: a growing problem with anger and violence in the workplace. Until the league toughens its stance on these problems, nothing is going to change and these ever-growing incidents will continue to mar the game.