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Knicks owner James Dolan has a friend in former Clippers owner, Donald Sterling. He came to Dolan’s defense after Charles Oakley insinuated that he was a racist and compared him to Sterling.

In an interview with SI, Oakley didn’t flat out call Dolan a racist but compared him to Sterling, who was removed from his ownership of the Clippers in part due to his racist remarks in 2014 that were secretly recorded by a side chick looking for a come up.

“(Dolan’s) on the same level,” Oakley said. “This man has been around for a long time. I’ve never heard anything good about him. … This is going to end up like what happened with the L.A. Clippers. It’s that bad.”

“He’s definitely a control freak,” he said. “He has everybody in the Garden on pins and needles. The other owners know this, that’s the bad thing about it.”

Oakley was just sharing his personal opinion on Dolan and if he feels there are some racial overtones regarding the matter then it is his right to speak on it. Sterling, however, disagrees with how Oakley is looking at it and defended Dolan while saying he hopes the two men can work it out.

“I think Dolan’s a terrific owner. I really do,” Donald Sterling told the Daily News Thursday. “He does the best he can do, and unfortunately sometimes a player misunderstands. I was an owner for 33 years, and sometimes players misunderstand.”

Sterling laughed off the comparison.

“Oakley compared me to Dolan? Isn’t that amazing. I feel bad about Oakley. I wish that he could understand that there are no hard feelings by Dolan towards him. Owners don’t have hard feelings towards the players,” said Sterling. “They want the players to succeed, because when the players succeed, (owners) succeed.”

I would hope that maybe (Oakley and Dolan) could get together and reach a level where they’re both comfortable with each other.”

These days, Sterling is laying low and happy to be out of the spotlight.

Written by @IamJoeSports