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It’s a legal score for MSG. Former New York Knicks star Charles Oakley must pay more than $642,000 in lawyer fees to Madison Square Garden for deleting text messages during a court battle over his ejection from a game eight years ago, according to court documents. The 61-year-old former power forward — who filed a defamation lawsuit against the arena firm and its CEO James Dolan in September 2017 — is accused of sending the company’s high-priced attorneys on a wallet-busting wild goose chase. “On or around July 10, 2024, [Oakley’s] counsel discovered that all text messages sent to or from [his] phone prior to February 2022 had been deleted,” the court papers, filed Friday in New York federal court, state. Though the basketball star had been subpoenaed for the texts, Oakley had “not ever attempt[ed] to preserve, collect, image, or copy [his]personal devices,” according to the court documents. Lawyers used by MSG Networks — including Randy Mastro, who now works for Mayor Eric Adams’ administration — charged big bucks, raking in $1,709 an hour, according to the court papers. MSG had initially demanded the ex-NBA player fork over roughly $1.5 million, but Judge Robyn Tarnofsky tallied it up to $642,337.65 in attorneys’ fees and costs. In 2017, Oakley was kicked out of the arena over a confrontation with security guards. The incident led to his arrest, but criminal charges were later dismissed. He later sued for defamation, arguing that Dolan had implied he had a drinking problem in statements the CEO made to the press. A civil lawsuit was dismissed by a Manhattan federal judge in 2020. “The court denied most of MSG’s wildly inflated fee request,” Oakley’s attorney, Valdi Licul, said of the ruling to Front Office Sports. “Nevertheless, we disagree that MSG is entitled to any recovery and will promptly seek to appeal.” During the ejection, the Knicks claimed Oakley was yelling non-stop at Dolan — but the hoopster denied that, saying he was asked to leave the arena for no reason, not long after taking his seat. “He’s both physically and verbally abusive. He may have a problem with alcohol; we don’t know, right?” Dolan told the media shortly afterward in a statement that prompted the defamation suit. Last year, Oakley said Dolan’s lawyers invited him to a Knicks game, but he declined to go. “They’ve got to apologize,” he told the Associated Press. “We’ll go from there. Can [Dolan] be man enough to say mistakes happen, and he made one?” Lawyers from MSG did not immediately return a request for comment.
