Draymond Green: Remarks about James Dolan 'came off the wrong way'

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Greentold ESPN that his comments about New York Knicks owner James Dolan using a "slave master mentality" towardCharles Oakley"came off the wrong way."

Green originally made his comments earlier this week on his on his "Dray Day" podcast on Uninterrupted, saying Dolan took issue with Oakley'scriticisms after the organization benefited from his contributions as a player.

"You doing it for me, it's all good," Green said. "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.

"It was all fine and dandy when he was laying people out, taking fines and all this stuff for your organization. But now, all of a sudden, when he says something that he feels, it's a problem."

On Thursday, however, Green clarified those comments to ESPN.

"Number one, I never said James Dolan has a slave master mentality," Green told ESPN Radio's Meet The All-Stars show that will air Saturday (5:30 p.m. ET). "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 maintains that Dolan is in the wrong for how he has 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. And so that came off the wrong way, and it wasn't what I meant by it.

"But what I meant by it, is there should be a respect level between players, ownership, staff, people who work in the organization, the league office, former players. It's a family. And I think there should always be a respect level that is kept amongst the family, and I don't think that situation it was necessarily kept."

ESPN's Ian Begley contributed to this report.