Charles Oakley blames Patrick Ewing for Knicks loss to Bulls in 1993

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In Episode 6 of “The Last Dance,” Charles Smith was highlighted as the New York Knicks failed to make it past the Bulls in the playoffs, yet again. It was a hard fought 1993 Eastern Conference finals, and the Knicks had a chance to go up 3-2 in the series. But Smith missed four straight layups as the Bulls played smothering defense. Chicago won the game and went on clinch the title in Game 6. Knicks fans were obviously devastated, and Game 5 later became known as the “Charles Smith game.”

But Charles Oakley says Smith shouldn’t be blamed for the Knicks’ collapse that postseason. Instead, he blames Knicks star Patrick Ewing, according to the New York Post.

“Patrick, at the end of the game, he’d get double-teamed,’’ Oakley said via the Post. “He’d shoot fadeaways on double-teams, and that hurt us as a team.”

“We didn’t make shots and played into their hands. With defense, they played a zone and built a wall. They knew Patrick wasn’t going to pass out of the double-team. Phil watched a lot of film. We watched a lot of film. But we were playing checkers, and they were playing chess.”

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Oakley went on to say that Ewing couldn’t match Jordan’s star power, using an interesting metaphor.

“The Bulls had Michael and we had Patrick,’’ Oakley said. “It’s like seeing Beyoncé and going to see someone trying to be Beyoncé. If Beyoncé is in town, everyone’s going to see Beyoncé. If Michael and Patrick are in town, everyone is going to see Michael. They had ‘The Show.’ We tried to stop them, and we couldn’t stop them.”

Oakley also said that Knicks coach Pat Riley shares some of the blame for the series loss, as well.

“Pat Riley never adjusted to the situation,’’ Oakley said. “At halftime, we did the same thing. They trapped us full court. We never did nothing like that to trap them and make them think about the game.

And of course, if you’re looking for somone to blame, you can’t forget the refs.

“We should’ve beaten them, and we didn’t beat them,’’ Oakley said. “The Bulls got a lot of calls. I tell that to Michael to this day. The league’s best player will get all the calls when he needed to. But Michael made shots.”

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