EJ, Chuck, Kenny & Shaq react to Adam Silver’s statement regarding Charles Oakley and the Knicks… pic.twitter.com/Nzo5qrk1Qh — NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 14, 2017

As we posted about on Monday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver met with New York Knicks owner James Dolan and former franchise great Charles Oakley at the league’s offices in an effort to settle their differences following Oakley’s ejection from Madison Square Garden and subsequent ban from the arena. Michael Jordan participated by telephone. Afterwards, Silver issued a statement.

“Both Mr. Oakley and Mr. Dolan were apologetic about the incident and subsequent comments, and their negative impact on the Knicks organization and the NBA,” Silver said. “Mr. Dolan expressed his hope that Mr. Oakley would return to MSG as his guest in the near future.”

As for TNT analyst Charles Barkley, he only hopes the whole saga — which has been the talk of the basketball world for the past six days — just goes away already.

“This is probably the silliest, most bs thing I’ve ever seen in my 30 years in the NBA,” Barkley said on Monday night’s pregame coverage. “This was a waste of time, waste of energy. It’s a bad look for the Knicks. It’s a bad look for Charles Oakley. It’s a bad look for the NBA. And I cannot believe we’re wasting all our time on this crap.”

Barkley’s take has remained consistent since he first opined this past Thursday, that there are no winners in this whole affair. The larger concern, to Barkley, is how the Knicks-Oakley saga has driven the NBA conversation for nearly a week. Is the on-court product so mediocre at the moment that the league needs a story like this one to generate headlines?

“How bad is the NBA, that we spend all our time talking about stuff that’s unimportant and insignificant?” Barkley said. “We can’t even just talk about basketball anymore?”

Watch above, via TNT.

[featured image via screengrab]

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