Maybe He Rushed This Decision

What’s new with JaRon Rush?

The former UCLA player, who turned pro after his sophomore season and went undrafted, just tried out with the Miami Heat but is still unsigned.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Rush said. “Things happen for a reason. I’m just trying to make the best of the situation I’m in. Right now I’m all about working hard, trying to make it on a roster.”

Next, Rush will play on the Celtics’ summer league team.

“My prospects are looking good,” he said. “Miami has taken a hard look at me. Boston wants me, as well as New Jersey. . . . Even though I wasn’t drafted, I’m proud of the situation I’m in.”

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Trivia time: Only two baseball players of those who rank in the top 10 in pinch-hits are still active. Who are they?

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$ucker$: The New York Knicks raised ticket prices, although courtside seats remain $1,500 apiece. That’s per game, or $61,500 for a season.

“The Knicks are a pot of gold with all the Wall Street people around,” a season-ticket holder told the New York Post.

“I’ve had my seats for more than 20 years and now half the people around me, they don’t even know what a basketball is. They’re talking business or where they’re going to hang out after the game.”

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Rich get richer: With some baseball payrolls still below

$20 million, the Yankees just became the first to hit

$100 million.

Next: $125 million?

Newly acquired Denny Neagle will be a free agent and the Yankees are expected to bump him to about $8 million. Owner George Steinbrenner has an agreement to take care of Roger Clemens, another free agent.

Then there’s Derek Jeter. The Yankees say they’ll offer him

$17 million--a year--and Jeter’s agent says it’s not enough.

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Poor get poorer: The Cincinnati Reds started the season with the slogan “It’s a Whole New Ballgame!” but dumping Neagle looked all too familiar.

“This just in,” wrote USA Today’s Mike LoPresti. “The Cincinnati Reds surrender. The white flag waves today in the breeze as another small-market team faces real life in the fast lane. . . . The Reds sent aid to the Yankees, which is like sending a CARE package to Beverly Hills.”

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Don’t worry, be happy: If purists are worried that baseball hitting records are falling like cut wheat, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Pat Reusse argues it’s progress.

“Tiger [Woods] and the generation of golfers that comes along to pursue him over the next 20 years will make more once-great championship courses obsolete,” writes Reusse. “They will use new techniques, better training, better clubs and better golf balls to average 325 yards off the tee. . . .

“What baseball can’t do is stop its hitters from working and training year-round to get stronger . . . [or] prevent the manufacturers from making bats that are easier to whip or to change the fact the ball is probably a better product.”

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Trivia answer: Lenny Harris of the Mets and John Vander Wal of the Pirates.

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And finally: Buy.com CFO Mitch Hill, on Nike dropping its sponsorship of the PGA Tour’s developmental tour: “I think they took all their sponsorship money and gave it to Tiger.”