NBA: Green clarifies 'slave master mentality' remark

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green backed off his comment Friday that New York Knicks owner James Dolan used "slave master mentality" toward former Knicks legend Charles Oakley. Green said remarks on his Tuesday "Dray Day" podcast "came off the wrong way" in criticizing Dolan for his role after Oakley's arrest led to him being banned from Madison Square Garden. "I never said James Dolan has a slave master mentality," Green told ESPN Radio. "I said when you look at something and someone is doing something for someone and all of a sudden they can't anymore, that falls under the slave mentality. "I can't say James Dolan is a racist. I don't know James Dolan. Honestly, if he walked past me right now, I wouldn't know who he is." Green said the Knicks benefited from Oakley as a player for many years but was then mistreated. "You doing it for me, it's all good. You doing it against me -- you speaking out against my organization -- it's not good anymore? That's a slave mentality. A slave-master mentality. That's ridiculous." Oakley, 53, had a altercation with security, which forcibly removed him from Madison Square Garden during a game. Oakley was arrested and charged with three misdemeanor counts of assault and one misdemeanor count of trespassing. Oakley's ban from the arena lasted less than a week after it was lifted by the Knicks on Tuesday, a day after NBA commissioner Adam Silver met with Dolan and Oakley with Michael Jordan joining by conference call. Green still maintains Dolan was in the wrong for how he treated Oakley. "I thought some of the things said about Charles Oakley -- from James Dolan, from the New York Knicks' Twitter handle -- some of the things said about Oakley was wrong, and I still feel that way," Green said. "However, I think that was a mistake by Dolan, that was a mistake by the Knicks. "Then I think I followed up and made the same mistake they made about what they said about Oakley, about how it came off about what I said about James Dolan. Like I said, I don't know (Dolan). I could never say he's a racist or he has a slave owner's mentality. I don't know if he has that. That's just how that situation looked to me from the outside looking in."