Nate Robinson's buzzer-beater not only doubled the Knicks' 3-point shot conversion total that night, but it allowed New York to avoid its lowest scoring output of the shot-clock era. High five, guys.

You've read or heard the rest. Starbury's walking out on the team after being benched, and then the team voting him out of the lineup the next game. Isiah Thomas and his "Problem? What problem?" attitude. The blatant hostility every night at the Garden -- should a subway ride to MSG for a Knick game actually be a more pleasant experience than the game itself?

How about the sexual harassment suit, in which the Knicks were sued for $11.6 million, wasted countless billable hours on attorneys fees, and then settled for $11.5 million? Then again, any observer of the fiscal prudence of Knicks management under James Dolan - -this is the highest-paid team in the NBA, after all -- can only be mildly surprised that the Knicks did not settle for more than $11.6 million.

Or, to quote NBA commissioner David Stern in referring to the Knicks' bungling of the Anucha Browne Sanders suit, it was "not a model of intelligent management."

Which extends to the court. On Feb. 8, the Knicks, in the midst of a seven-game losing streak (their third streak of at least that length this season), led the San Antonio Spurs by 18 points in the third quarter. The Garden, for once this winter, was rocking.

San Antonio, playing without Tony Parker, came back. Trailing by three with just seconds left, Manu Ginobili drove toward the bucket. A lay-up wasn't going to beat the Knicks. However, Renaldo Balkman left Michael Finley alone beyond the 3-point arc to provide help in the lane -- help that was not needed -- and Ginobili dished the ball to Finley. Swish, with 0.4 remaining.

San Antonio won easily in overtime. And afterward Ginobili allowed that dishing to Finley had been the plan all along, that his drive to the hoop was merely a decoy. The Argentine did not exactly say it, but his team's execution of the play did: "We knew the Knicks were this stupid."

Dumb and arrogant. Owner James Dolan. President and head coach Isiah Thomas, who is not stupid, merely defiant. The last time Boston visited the Garden, Knicks players incited an ejection fest by mouthing off to Celtics players. On Martin Luther King Day! Nevermind that the game was a matinee on a holiday, so that there was a fair chance that more children than usual would be in attendance.

But then, when is the last time that the Knicks gave a crap about their fans? When is the last time that any NBA steward (with the exception of Knicks forward David Lee, who signs autographs before games) of the Knicks or Nets did?

A long, long time ago I was a 5-year old boy shooting hoops in my driveway in New Jersey with my dad. I had just discovered my first love, basketball, and I knew the name, number and position of every Knicks player. Even John Gianelli. The two of us were shooting baskets. My dad was telling me how the Knicks had just clinched a world championship in Los Angeles the night before -- the game had come on too late for me to stay up (to be honest, I'm not even certain that it was televised).

That was 35 years ago. A boy and his dad discussing a championship Knicks squad. If I'd had any idea it would be New York's last championship team we'd be talking about, I might not have been so giddy.

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