Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks

by Chris Herring

Oakley, who enjoyed gambling more than anyone and carried around a brown duffle bag with a minimum of $50,000 in cash most trips, had grown annoyed when younger, lesser-paid Knicks said they didn’t have enough cash on them to wager in the six-figure card games during flights. To get around the “I don’t have enough cash” excuse, Oakley bought a credit-card imprint machine—and a pad of carbon-paper slips—to help facilitate teammates’ bets that way instead. “It was one of those old, metal machines that went click-click,” says Childs, referring to the credit-card scanner. “Let’s say you owe him $2,000. He’d charge a fee for using the machine, and make it like $2,300. Basically a shylock. He was the Bank of Oak.”