Yes. I know it's been a while since I was able to blog about something. Thanks to the other co-owner (Big Diddler, aka Kev) for reminding me of this everyday on his blog and at my work. In my last blog, I wrote about the 90's generation of ballers to today's softer generation and it just seems something or someone is missing. I got it! We need Charles Oakley. Charles Oakley is baddeset, toughest baller I ever watched. When New York traded him to Toronto for Marcus Camby, I was the most excited person about this deal. Oak single handley changed Toronto from a soft team to a don't come in the paint or Oak will knock ya down team. It also didn't hurt that Oak played the same on the court as he did in real life.
When watching the Bulls-Knicks in the 90's, that was a rivalry where these guys would step over their own mother to beat the other opponent and who do you think was in the middle of all this? Oakley is a perpetual ish disturbor who had the basketball IQ, but also the street smarts to take players out of their game. Don't believe me, ask Alonzo Mourning (ring chaser). Oak brought toughness, rebounding and an edge to his teams he played for. Of course he crossed the lines some times, but he didn't apologize for it and made sure everyone knew where he was coming from. If you don't think Oak made a difference in Toronto, look at how Vince played before and after Oak left. Vince was a remarkable athletic freak who could cut through the paint and get to the line any time. If Vince was slacking, Oak made sure he was there to put Vince in his place. When Oak left, Vince starteed to rely more on his outside game. With Oak gone to push him, he rested on his talent, became lazy and was never the same player again (you know im right Kev). Of course Oak brought more to the table in his game, jsut ask Charles Barkley (slap in the face), jeff McGinnis (thrown basketball in the head for dealing with his girl, Tyrone Hill (nearly knocking the ish out of him for not paying on his dice game) and Vince's mom (putting in her in her place when she was questioning their strategies)
Oak has also done his healing part as well. Did you know it was Oak who squashed the beef between T-Mac and Vince? Oak played with Jordan, so he knew who the meal ticket was on the team and realized these guys needed to be pushed or get a slap upside the head when they were crusing. When people ask me who my favourite player is, I say with a straight face; Charles Oakley. My generation of ball had these players like Oakley, Dennis Rodman and Bill Lambeer. If you look at today's generation, the only guys I see similar to those is Ron Artest and Reggie Evans (a trade I loved as soon as I heard it). No one else in the league comes close.
If you watched Wednesay's Raps game against Philly, Reggie Evans made his debut and played 5 minutes. After he was subbed out, he got a standing ovation and a Reggie chant. Why all that for a bench guy who played 5 minutes? It's because he is closest thing Toronto has had since Oak and people respect real ballers.
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