Years after retired NBA star Charles Oakley sued New York Knicks owner James Dolan for having security at Madison Square Garden forcibly remove him from the arena, the court case has taken a new turn. Last Friday (Oct. 31), a court ordered Oakley to cough up some big money for the 2017 incident.
According to Complex, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky ruled that the former Knicks power forward has to pay $642,000 to James Dolan for legal fees to cover the attorney costs connected to MSG’s effort to recover Oakley’s deleted text messages related to the 2017 incident.
Who knew it costs so much to recover deleted text messages?
While $642,000 seems like a lot of money simply for recovering deleted text messages, it’s a lot less than the $1.5 million that Dolan’s legal team originally asked for relating to the matter. So we guess it’s a “win” of sorts for Oak. The judge reduced the bill after finding the firm’s hourly rates and time entries didn’t match up with its original request and landed on a total of $642,337.
While Charles Oakley originally sued James Dolan for the incident eight years ago, things didn’t exactly break his way and have seemingly become a headache for the man ever since.
Per Complex:
The case was dismissed in 2021, but a federal appeals court revived parts of it in 2023, allowing specific claims to proceed. While the underlying case continues, the fee ruling represents a setback for Oakley.
MSG was granted the right to seek legal fees in July after the court found that Oakley failed to preserve text messages from the period following the incident. MSG’s attorneys said the process of attempting to recover those messages accounted for more than $1.3 million of their time.
Oakley’s attorney, Valdi Licul, said in a statement that the defense team plans to appeal the ruling, adding, “The court denied most of MSG’s wildly inflated fee request… we disagree that MSG is entitled to any recovery.”
Given James Dolan’s very deep pockets, we feel this won’t turn out too well for the beloved retired New York Knicks player. Just sayin’.
What do y’all think about this latest ruling in the case of Charles Oakley vs. James Dolan? Fair or foul? Let us know in the comments section below.
