Charles Oakley was a very respected man around the NBA thanks to his personality and fierce competitiveness. The former Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks star seemingly didn’t fear anybody and was actually the one inflicting fear in others.
Oakley always tried to be away from trouble but he never hesitated to get physical with people trying to play him. That’s what happened in the 90s when he showed one of the most prominent and intimidating figures in showbiz who was in charge.
Back in the 90s, Suge Knight was one of the biggest and most controversial figures in entertainment, earning a reputation of hurting people when he felt disrespected. However, Knight allegedly feared Oakley, as Scottie Pippen recently revealed.
In an appearance on FOX SOUL’s Choppin It Up With Oakley, Scottie was inquired by co-host Sasha Delvalle about the time his former teammate told him Suge Knight (Death Row Records co-founder and Tupac’s associate) didn’t want to get in trouble with him.
Via Hot New Hip Hop:
“I look up. I’m seeing all these people. Probably 3,4 feet from me,” Pippen said. “They gettin’ pushed around, knocked around. Me and Oak standing there, you know, we both of stature so we could see everything. People could see us.”
While Pippen observed the number of people getting pushed around at the party, he saw Oakley lock eyes with Suge. “Oak turn around and look and he’s like, ‘Man, that’s Suge Knight. He don’t want none of this here smoke. I just had beef with him the other night,” Pippen continued, revealing that Oakley’s point was proven by Suge’s distance from their section.
“It was like a storm going on over there. Wasn’t nobody moving where we were standing and I’m like, ‘Wow.’ And it was basically Suge Knight walked around Oakley like that,” he said, mapping out the movements with his index finger on the table. “That’s what I saw.”
Oakley added, “Sometimes, you don’t gotta repeat nothin’ when somebody tell you the truth. It is what it is.”
Perhaps many young folks won’t see how impressive this is, but standing up to Suge and intimidating him is truly something extraordinary. Charles Oakley could never win a championship with the Chicago Bulls and was traded to the New York Knicks before they entered the sweetest era in franchise history, but the memories he left there were unforgettable.
His initial role in the league was protecting Michael Jordan, who really valued his presence on the court. However, the team didn’t see Oakley as the right piece to win a championship, shipping him to New York.
He made big memories on and off the court, and this story from Scottie is indeed one of the best from Oak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na4b6RYdDHs
