A biography for Charles Oakleyhasn’t been written yet.
“A shirt look good when you iron it but if you iron too much, it gonna get burned.”
“I'm in New York every two weeks. I don't have to ring a bell when I come to the city. I just do what I'm supposed to do when I'm in the city. I don't shy away.”
“I want to do what's best for the team, always.”
“When I first got into this league, I knew a lot. But I made myself better by listening and working hard.”
“My thing is, when Barkley played basketball, he didn't practice, he wasn't a leader, he wasn't this or that, he just had natural talent so he got chosen to the Dream Team, All Star team because he had the talent and he was the franchise player on the team.”
“I don't play mind games.”
“I'm not the kind of guy you threaten.”
“The guys who beat me didn't get 1,000 rebounds. I did. It's not my fault the other guys didn't play as many games.”
“I guess I'm going to have to go Google myself and see why people think I shouldn't be coaching.”
“You can't say, 'You're a scorer, you score. You rebound, you rebound.' Basketball is more than that. Basketball is knowing the next step, knowing the next play, knowing how to make things happen.”
“My thing was, if somebody talks about you this and that, you got to go prove them wrong.”
“I'm not a troublemaker. People say, 'You got into a lot of incidents.' Yeah, but it was on the basketball floor.”
“Do me a favor and don't make me out to be no hero.”
“Most coaches are mostly small guards because they think guards have more knowledge.”
“We had guys come out of high school, Moses Malone, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, but all these guys could play.”
“If you see a man kiss me, I better be in my casket.”
“I just want to let the fans know I don't hate the Knicks. I love the Knicks.”
“People hate to go out to eat with me because they know I'm going to send it back. Like, I'm trying to order simple. But don't blame me if you bring out the wrong stuff.”
“In the old days Michael Jordan and Larry Bird worked for everything they got. They worked hard on their game.”
“I'm a veteran. I understand the game. I can control a game. I understand systems. I can play several positions.”