One of the greats to play the game Charles Oakley had a recent interview with Betway Insider where he shared his thoughts on Knicks, Raptors and The Last Dance
Knicks, “If you finished in the top four last year, and you feel you added a couple pieces to your team, you should finish back in the top three or four this year. When you’ve got teams like Chicago and Washington playing outstanding basketball, that’s two teams looking to make the playoffs and right now they’re in front of them.
“They’re young. Julius Randle is not playing the way he was playing last year so when he gets back on his game, the Knicks will pick up the pace but right now, people are gonna be talking to him.”
The Last Dance, “Everybody got to see a different side of Michael Jordan, if you didn’t see the Hall of Fame speech. In the speech he pointed out a lot of people who were waving their finger at him, so he got the last finger point. The Last Dance is the same thing, he got the last say. If you mention Michael Jordan, you can’t have the first say, you’d better have the last say.
“It was great. We got a chance to see the other side of some other guys. It was a documentary so it was put together like Michael Jordan always wants to look good, so a lot of guys felt like he let them down, but it’s like a movie, you know? If you ain’t the main actor you ain’t gonna be a big part of it. I didn’t have no bad feelings about what he said about me. He put me in The Last Dance, he put me in the Hall of Fame speech, he put me in Space Jam, so I’ll wait for the next show.
“I tell Mike all the time: “You should somebody to your car when it rains, when it snows somebody should shovel your snow. You need someone to keep your windows clean because you played with a lot of bums.” And a lot of these guys in The Last Dance are mad about what he said about them. Like, half of y’all couldn’t play, so how are y’all mad? You should be glad that he mentioned you in The Last Dance!
Impressed you so far, Charles Oakley: “In the East a lot of good teams are not really playing well right now. Out West you’ve got Golden State, the Lakers have got injuries, Utah is Utah.
“It’s early but I think Golden State have been a surprise without Klay. They have a great system. I think everybody plays to Curry. Golden State is more defined because everybody knows Curry’s the main guy and everybody has to play through him. Some other teams are still struggling to find their leaders and this and that. LA will be up and down all year because Westbrook is Westbrook, his mindset in basketball is different than LeBron’s or the other guys. He plays into himself sometimes. But as soon as LA finds a system, a top seven or eight guys – Carmelo’s starting now, he was coming off the bench earlier in the season – but it’s gonna be a rollercoaster this year I think.
“In the West think everybody had the Clippers and the Lakers or maybe Phoenix and the Lakers, but now you’re seeing Golden State. You’ve got to answer to them now. The way Golden State’s playing, you’ve got to make them the favourite right now because they’re playing mid-season basketball. They’ve got it clicking on all cylinders. Curry is cooking.
“KD is playing good but I think Brooklyn problem is they’re still trying to find their rotation without Kyrie. LaMarcus Aldridge should be starting I think but they’re going with a small line-up.”