By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Basketball great Charles Oakley, who personified toughness during his 19 bruising NBA seasons, said efforts to make the league more “sexy” leave a lot to be desired.
Oakley, nicknamed “Oak Tree”, retired in 2004 after memorable stints with the Bulls and Knicks during an era when the game was dominated by big men and the now ubiquitous three-point shot was still something of a novelty.
“They want it to be a sexy game now,” Oakley told Reuters while promoting his new memoir, “The Last Enforcer”, which chronicles his many wild encounters both on and off the court.
Sitting in a hotel room in Beverly Hills, the witty, gray-haired Cleveland native had a lot to say about the state of the league.
He believes referees today turn a blind eye to traveling and carrying the ball in an effort to juice the scoreboard and keep the action flowing.
“They just let them play because they don’t want it to stop,” he said. “They don’t want to run people away from the game, they want to bring them to it.”
Yet he is not convinced it is working.
“I don’t know the numbers, but when I watch it, I don’t think it’s working. It don’t jump on you no more.”
He said the league also suffers from a deficit of star players, with maybe eight to 10 in total across the NBA’s 30 teams.
“And I’m being nice,” he said.
The 58-year-old also believes the massive contracts given to young players can sap them of their desire to improve.
“There’s nothing wrong with getting your money, but add to your game,” he said.
Player development is also being stifled by teams falling in love with the three-point shot.
“Everybody is just jacking up shots, and that means you’re not putting in the details to play a real brand of basketball,” he said.
“Guys have layups and they’ll pull back and shoot a three,” he said, shaking his head.
He did, however, praise Milwaukee’s two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo for attacking the basket in last year’s NBA Finals, which the Bucks came from behind to win in six games.
“He started going straight down hill, and that was the big turn of that whole series. He saw that going to the rim, nobody could stop him.”
Unlike many current NBA players, Oakley doesn’t have any tattoos adorning his 6-foot-8-inch frame, although he suspects their popularity might be more about projecting strength.
“More power to them, but I think a lot of guys put them on because they don’t have muscle tone,” he said.
“Everybody is just so skinny now.”
And how would Oakley stack up against the inked up, slimmed down players of today?
“I would play lovely,” he said.
“I would have 20 (points) and 20 (rebounds) a night because they don’t play physical… I would probably play like LeBron for 20, 22 years with ease.
“There ain’t no physicality, so I’d be playing against myself.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Toby Davis)
