“We need to keep the Garden a place that’s comfortable and safe for everybody who goes there,” Dolan said. “So anybody who comes to the Garden — whether they’ve been drinking too much alcohol, they’re looking for a fight, they’re abusive, disrespectful to the staff and then fans — they’re going to be ejected and they’re going to be banned.”

Several times over the course of the half-hour interview, Dolan described Oakley’s behavior on Wednesday night as out of line. Dolan also said that Oakley “may have a problem with alcohol” and that Oakley needed to seek help to control his anger. If Oakley were to address his behavioral issues, Dolan said, the Garden would most likely welcome him back.

Oakley, 53, has long been estranged from the Knicks and has had an adversarial relationship with Dolan. But he has insisted he was not acting inappropriately on Wednesday night when he sat down not far from Dolan to watch the Knicks play the Los Angeles Clippers.

A number of fans who were sitting near Oakley said they had not seen or heard him being belligerent. Other fans suggested that he seemed somewhat combative. In any case, after security guards approached him, a shoving match ensued, and that was followed by the hard-to-believe sight of Oakley being grabbed and led away.

But many things with the Knicks are not easy to fathom. Their starting point guard, Derrick Rose, went AWOL for a day. The team itself has lost 20 of its past 26 games, continuing a run of futility that has dominated Dolan’s two decades as owner. And the team president, Phil Jackson, mimicking Dolan, has not spoken with reporters who cover the team since September.