Garden Party Lights Go Out

“You get what you get. You smoke what you get. Let it burn.”

--Former Knick Charles Oakley, on his old team

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NEW YORK -- In Gotham these days, it’s whatever gets you through the long Knick night.

Their 10-year, 433-game sellout streak is over, the playoffs are a dream they sell to suckers and their celebrity count dwindles as fast as you can say, “They’re so over.”

Even Spike Lee only comes occasionally. In lieu of famous faces, there’s a cartoon character, Milk Carton Man, who dresses as a human milk carton with a picture of Jeff Van Gundy on the side and the words, “Have you seen this coach?”

Van Gundy was here for five seasons, reaching the East semifinals in each, while being reviled for his Sad Sack demeanor, failure to win a championship and refusal to turn his players loose to, quote, realize their full potential. To the dismay of few -- at the time -- he resigned in December 2001 with a 10-9 record, after which they plunged below .500 for good.

Turned loose by Van Gundy’s successor, Don Chaney, the Knicks have, indeed, realized their potential. After Thursday’s loss to the Lakers at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks are 41-50 under Chaney and mediocrity is just another nostalgic memory from the ‘90s.

“The only thing the Knicks didn’t do, they didn’t win a championship,” WFAN’s Mike Francesa says. “They went to two Finals [1994, 1999], they went to the second round nine years in a row ...

“And they were a great event in this town. I’m telling you, the last 10 years with the Knicks has been tremendous drama. [Michael] Jordan-Knicks.... [Pat] Riley, Miami-Knicks. Great, great theater. Great springtime theater.

“I think I spent almost every spring Sunday of the decade at the Garden. It was always that way. You counted on it. That’s gone now and it’s left a big void in this town, there’s no question, because this town is a very, very big basketball town.”

This is also a very tough town, which tore better Knick teams than this one to bits, without anesthetic, but something amazing is happening now.

To be sure, the fans are depressed. Lee, paraphrasing ‘80s Knick Micheal Ray Richardson’s famous line, “The ship be sinking,” recently lamented to the New York Times, “The ship be sunk.” However, in what would be an unusual development anywhere, and especially here, they haven’t turned savage.

Meanwhile, Madison Square Garden President James Dolan embarrasses himself regularly, which is why he so rarely talks, another problem, because his predecessor, Dave Checketts, not only had a clue but dazzled the press with his footwork.

Not that the problems started under his watch, but Dolan is doing his part to mismanage both Garden teams, the Rangers, who haven’t been in the NHL playoffs in five seasons, and the Knicks, each of them failing despite runaway payrolls.

The Knicks are old, small and slow and have a $91-million payroll, No. 2 in the NBA and $40 million over the projected luxury tax threshold -- which means they’ll have to pay an extra $40 million this summer. That’s serious money, even for the Garden.

Nevertheless, there are few calls for Dolan’s head. Of course, what good would it do?

Dolan got his job the old-fashioned way, he inherited it. His father, Charles, runs Cablevision, which owns the Garden, once the shining jewel of the Manhattan night, now their own little shop of horrors.

The biggest, toughest town of all is reduced to praying for better days.

Where Have You Gone, Pat the Rat?

“Name after name would show up. Mira Sorvino. Ashley Judd. Winona Ryder. You would go in, sprinkle your stardust around and go home. That’s what it was like.”

--Riley to the New York Times,

on postgame dinners at Elaine’s

Those were the days, my friend, but they ended.

No one dwells on it, because there’s no greater sin here than spurning this town for another, but it started with Riley, who was hired by Checketts, and arrived in 1991, intent on re-creating the Lakers’ Showtime environment.

Riley’s wife, Chris, told publicists to send them their rich, their famous. Celebs got in free (assuming, of course they were as celebrated as they thought they were, which wasn’t always the case, leading to some interesting negotiations).

In case you missed any of them, the public relations staff ran a list of famous attendees in the postgame notes -- Woody Allen, Danny Aiello, Matthew Modine, et al. John F. Kennedy Jr. achieved a special cachet among the Knicks by never asking for anything. He just showed up, watched the game and left.

Just as fast, Riley turned the team around, even if life became a series of “crises,” as when an unidentified player complained, the Daily News branded them “Team Turmoil” and the New York Post fingered Anthony Mason as the rat, with a graphic portraying Mason on a post office wanted poster.

Unfortunately, Riley missed replicating his Laker experience ... by one game ... taking the Knicks to Game 7 of the 1994 Finals against Houston, but losing.

Within a year, Riley was gone. His team was aging and Garden politics, always treacherous, were never more so when the Garden was being sold, as it was now as Cablevision bought out partner ITT Sheraton.

A new owner meant everyone was obliged to run around, trying to cut a new deal. Riley and Checketts, allies and friends, fell out. Checketts moved up to Garden president. Riley took a fat Miami offer that would make him 20% owner if he stayed 10 seasons.

Don Nelson, trying to replace Riley, didn’t finish the 1995-96 season, but Van Gundy, the dweeb who roared, took over to keep the dream alive, if not the reality, because center Patrick Ewing had begun to slide.

Checketts had once talked of rebuilding when Ewing got old, but in the interim, he had promised Charles Dolan double-digit revenue growth annually. Checketts later mused that New York wouldn’t stand for a rebuilding project, but his ambition had precluded it too. Instead, he had to keep his cash cow producing and take ever-bigger chances, trying to patch on the fly.

They went down to the crossroads and beyond it, acquiring Larry Johnson, who had never been the same player after hurting his back -- the summer the Hornets gave him a $72-million extension, which the Knicks took on. Johnson lasted five seasons, retired in 2001, is still being paid ($17.5 million for this season and next) and the Knicks’ cap was blown for good.

Then, running out of moves, they traded Oakley, a fan favorite, to Toronto for promising, erratic Marcus “Cotton” Camby, who remained erratic and often was hurt while the irrepressible Oakley trained his mouth on the Knicks, forever after.

Improbably, the Knicks went to the 1999 Finals after finishing No. 8 in the East, putting on an incredible run in the East playoffs, but it was a uniquely Garden Moment, as rife with backstage intrigue as “Hamlet.”

Checketts was set to fire Van Gundy, but Ewing interceded ... so Checketts fired his right-hand man, General Manager Ernie Grunfeld, who was feuding with Van Gundy, because one of them had to go.

Checketts sounded out Phil Jackson, who was then retired, about replacing Van Gundy. The news leaked weeks later ... as Van Gundy was leading the Knicks on their miracle run.

Checketts denied talking to Jackson, then acknowledged he had lied. Checketts, the clean-cut, religious family man who had moved to New York from Utah, later told confidantes he was appalled at what he found himself doing in 10 years at the Garden.

The Knicks lost to San Antonio in five games in the ’99 Finals and returned to earth the next season, never to fly again, as constituted. Checketts, who could have let the fading Ewing walk in one more season and, at least, lowered their payroll, instead traded him in a three-way deal for the Lakers’ Glen Rice ... who was given a new, four-year, $36-million contract.

Rice lasted one season in New York. He and Checketts left within months of each other.

Nineteen games into the 2001-02 season, so did Van Gundy.

So much for the glory years, such as they were.

A New Prince for the City

These days, an arena may be obsolete at age 15, but the Garden, at 35, is special.

There was genius in its design, on the site of the old Penn Station, above a transportation nexus that delivered tens of thousands of fans smoothly to their doorstep.

Almost as soon as the doors opened, the Knicks won their ‘70s titles under Red Holzman, captivating the city. Of course, they lost the city in the ‘80s, with attendance dropping all the way to 10,703 (announced), but they got it back under Riley in the ‘90s, becoming bigger and hotter than ever.

Now, eight seasons after Riley’s departure, with contention no longer on the table, the Knicks amazingly still give off some of the old glow.

Simultaneously adored and flayed, the Riley-Van Gundy Knicks won no titles but had a longer run than the Holzman Knicks, who won two titles but came and went in five seasons. The Riley-Van Gundy run lasted nine wild, sold-out years.

You couldn’t make stuff like this up ... John Starks clotheslining Scottie Pippen in the classic ’92 seven-game series with the Bulls

Now it’s all nostalgia all the time, because there’s nothing epic left.

The Knicks missed the playoffs last season and are No. 10 in the East now. Instead of Checketts’ high-wire act, they have the inexperienced Dolan, who lays the responsibility off on General Manager Scott Layden, who showed what he could do running the Jazz but is a clay pigeon in a media-intensive situation in which he’s blamed for an approach that was carved in stone long before he arrived.

Meanwhile, Dolan continues on his merry way ... strumming a guitar aboard a Knick charter flight ... calling a meeting on the road and inviting the players to participate in a model car rally ... alternately ducking and challenging the press.

The season got off to a shaky start when Latrell Sprewell, current fan favorite, showed up at media day with a broken bone in his right hand, which he had neglected to tell the team about.

Embarrassed, the Knicks fined him an unheard-of $250,000. Sprewell, who’s nothing if not tenacious, filed a grievance against his employer and a $40-million libel suit against the Post, which reported he hurt himself in a fight.

With the Knicks 2-8, Dolan did one of his impromptu stand-ups with the Knick press corps, insisting this was not “a throwaway year,” declaring this team was somehow better than the ’99 overachievers who made the Finals.

“That was one of the worst years,” Dolan told the writers. “What were you guys writing about that year? This team has character and composure, a lot more composure than that team.”

Proving he hadn’t learned anything, Dolan last week did a similar number with the Ranger writers, daring them to write off the struggling team, which had just fired Coach Bryan Trottier, if they dared. The Post’s Jay Greenberg wrote that Dolan sounded “like a simpleton.”

Dolan couldn’t be reached for this story.

In the absence of anything else, the fans’ adoration has fastened on Sprewell, who arrived as a major outlaw in the wake of his assault on coach P.J. Carlesimo and rehabilitated himself as a player and a man. Now Sprewell is the team’s de facto spokesman, assuming the Oakley mantle of brutal candor, and plays with such flair, he has captured the heart of the supposedly cold, cold city.

“The thing that’s surprising to me, because I didn’t expect it, this town loves Sprewell,” Francesa said. “They don’t like him. They love him.

“I can’t account for that. That one surprised me, I have to admit. I can usually tell. I can tell who’s going to be popular in this town. You know, [Derek] Jeter’s going to be popular, you know that [Mike] Piazza’s going to be very, very popular....

“But the Knick fan is savvy and one thing about Sprewell, when he gets between the lines, he plays his rear end off. Both ends of the court. And he’s fearless and New York loves fearless players.”

Nor does New York mind if Sprewell defies Knick management while playing for the Knicks. This should be awkward, but Sprewell, who remains a different kind of guy although now he’s an accessible one, doesn’t want out.

“I can’t explain it,” he said after a recent game. “It’s just being in New York, being able to play in the Garden every night. Being in the New York area, I love it here.

“I just think the biggest thing is the connection that I have with our fans out here. A game like tonight, I didn’t particularly play well but I always seem to have fans that are always in my corner, no matter what the case is. I’m very appreciative of that....

“Being out on the court, you felt the energy tonight. When you win here, it doesn’t get any better.”

Of course, when you lose here, it doesn’t get any worse, or once it didn’t.

Now, the fans still believe, or they try to. Antonio McDyess, who blew out a knee in the preseason, is expected back next season. They have a highly regarded Croatian point guard named Milos Vujanic coming. And, they always note, this is the East, where you don’t have to be that good.

Not that Sprewell is sure to be part of it. According to the local papers, the team is shopping him all over creation.

Knick favorites come and go. A Garden official named Joe Cohen once said that only the Garden’s bricks and mortar were permanent, but, for the moment, at least, the Knick dream endures too.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Big Payrolls

Teams with the highest NBA payrolls (in millions) and their records. The Clippers have the league’s lowest payroll at $25.5 million:

*--* TEAM PAY W-L PORTLAND $77.4 32-16 NEW YORK $75.8 21-27 SACRAMENTO $63.4 34-17 ORLANDO $60.6 24-26 LAKERS $57.5 24-23 NOTE--These payroll numbers reflect only players on current rosters

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