Oakley: No leaders on this Knicks' team
BY ALAN HAHN
November 21, 2007

Charles Oakley pointed to the obvious problem with the Knicks, that goes beyond effort or skill. "I think they don't have leaders on this team," the former Knick said. "I don't see any leaders. It's just bad karma."

Oakley, who was a heart-and-soul leader of the Knicks teams of the 1990s, said you can't make comparisons between that era and this one. "The league wasn't the same back then," he said. And from his point of view, the Knicks seem too comfortable with losing.

"I think you're going to lose games, but it's how you lose games," Oakley added. "We wouldn't have guys on this court smiling, shaking guys' hands the whole game, laughing and joking. They're not serious."

Oakley, who attended last night's 108-82 Knicks loss to the Warriors at the Garden, referred to karma when he discussed the events of the past week, which involved Stephon Marbury deserting the team in Phoenix on a game day.

"I think that's personal," Oakley said. "I think somebody doing something like that doesn't care for the team. It's bad karma on the team."

Bad karma? How about this: Oakley sat center court, however, unlike singer James Blunt, who was sitting next to him, the former Knicks great was not shown on the Jumbotron.



Knix fix

Renaldo Balkman sat out the game with a sore right ankle, which has been a problem for him all season. Balkman missed two games last week because he sprained the ankle. He also missed all of training camp with a stress reaction in that ankle . . . Quentin Richardson is still feeling the effects of a hyperextended elbow suffered in the Nov. 11 loss to Miami. "It hasn't gotten any better," Isiah Thomas said of Richardson, who went into last night's game shooting 33.3 percent from the field and an uncharacteristic 24 percent (6-for-25) from three-point range. "Some days it's good, some days it's not so good," Thomas said. "It definitely affects his shooting." It didn't affect his ball control. Richardson was the only player of the 10 who got into the game to not make a turnover.

Posted by nyk4ever:

Oakley could still whip the ass of everyone on this team. That's sad.