Oakley once lent Jayson Williams $20K in college

Ever since an incident that saw him get tossed out of Madison Square Garden, Charles Oakley has been arguably the most talked about person in the sports world.

So it's no surprise that when former NBA center Jayson Williams was interviewed on Gio & Jones on CBS Sports Radio, he was asked about his longtime friend Oakley.

In the process of discussing their friendship, Williams detailed the time they first met and how it ended up with Oakley lending the then St. John's star $20,000.

“This is where we’re going to put the NCAA and St. John’s in trouble,” Williams said. “So, how we did it at St. John’s was when you were in your senior year, and the guys who made it before you goes to the NBA, that guy would give you, let’s call it like a loan so you don’t have to go out and get an agent or put St. John’s in any trouble with the NCAA. So when my year was up and I was a senior, it was Mark Jackson. Now if anybody knows Mark Jackson, Mark is the greatest human being on Earth - but cheap as the day is long. That man is so frugal.”

Williams, who was a senior in 1990, attempted to collect from Jackson, a 1987 first-round pick, after a number of games, but each time he was told to "come back next game." It appeared as if the $15,000 Williams expected as part of the tradition would never come, but then Oakley - who went to Virginia Union - stepped in.

“After I came back about the fifth time, Oak came over to me,” Williams said. “I had never met him, always looked up to him, everybody wanted to be a Charles Oakley-type player. He said, ‘Come here, man. Once you ask somebody once and they ain’t going to give it to you, you don’t beg. What you do is follow me home after.’ Went home and he gave me 20 (and said) ‘When you get drafted, I’m going to want 25 back.’”

Williams agreed to the what he called "mafia rates" and it launched a friendship that has spanned nearly 30 years.