Knicks enforcer Charles Oakley calls out Sixers star Joel Embiid
The Philadelphia 76ers were able to come up with a pivotal 125-114 win over the New York Knicks in Game 3 thanks to Joel Embiid scoring a playoff career-high 50 points. The big fella is dealing with Bell’s Palsy and dealing with a knee injury and still dropped 50 in a win.
However, a big factor in Game 3 was Embiid being called for a flagrant-1 foul on Knicks big man Mitchell Robinson in the first quarter. He grabbed Robinson’s leg while he was trying to jump and one could argue it should have been a flagrant-2 foul and an ejection for Embiid.
Back in the 90’s, the Knicks had a big man named Charles Oakley who was the team’s enforcer in a way. He would be the guy who would protect New York’s stars and do things to bother his opponents.
He spoke with NewsDay and discussed how he would handle the Embiid situation:
“I probably would have smacked him,” Oakley said.
“If I’m the Knicks, this is what I do. I’m putting him in every pick-and-roll,” Oakley said. “Make him work . . . Then you might want to set a hard pick on him. Let’s see how it feels when someone puts you out there.”
Oakley comes from an era where physical play was allowed and it was a rough and tough era. Smacking somebody in today’s game would likely result in a rather long suspension.
Either way, it’s obvious the Knicks are not happy with the Embiid play from Game 3. It will be interesting to see what happens in Game 4 on Sunday as the Sixers look to even the series.
