Knicks Pin Hopes on Ceaseless Remakes

Start spreadin’ the news, yet again: And now for the return of ... Phil Jackson?

In the absence of hope, Gotham runs on the arrival and departure of big names. So it was that the New York Knicks’ revolving door had barely stopped spinning after Lenny Wilkens ran through it, when Jackson’s name emerged as the team’s top candidate.

That’s a good one. We take you now to Deer Lake, Mont., where Phil is mulling the possibilities.

Let’s see, I had Mike and Scottie and that worked out pretty good. And then I had Shaq and Kobe, which was OK.

And here I’d have ... Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford?

No, I’m sorry, Isiah, not even for $12.5 million a year.

Of course, Jackson’s name will keep everyone excited for a few days as Knick boss Isiah Thomas looks around. Then there will be the dramatic conclusion -- Jax Axes Knix -- by which time Thomas will have had time to think of something else.

This is what Gotham has in lieu of an NBA franchise, an ever-more-desperate charade that covers up the fact the Knicks keep selling their future to maintain a mediocre present.

It was only 13 months ago that Thomas arrived to the sound of trumpets, Isiah’s name being a big one too, to replace shy, overmatched and wholly inappropriate Scott Layden.

Thomas, by way of contrast, was just what they needed to feed the mob, a dynamic heat and light expert who could always figure out someone to pursue or terminate.

At this key juncture in Knick history, he considered his bosses’ inclination to sit still for three or four seasons while he blew up this mess and started over, found it minimal and announced he’d go boldly down the same improbable path.

“This is a market that I think is insatiable about winning and wanting to win,” said Thomas. “This isn’t a market about rebuilding.”

Impressively, he cleaned house, moving out Coach Don Chaney, Keith Van Horn, Antonio McDyess, Dikembe Mutombo, Clarence Weatherspoon, Frank Williams, Charlie Ward, Shandon Anderson and Othella Harrington, bringing in Wilkens, Marbury, Crawford, Tim Thomas, Penny Hardaway, Nazr Mohammed and Trevor Ariza.

Their payroll grew to $108 million, the league’s biggest by almost $20 million. Instead of getting out from under their commitments in 2006 or 2007, they were effectively capped out through 2008 or 2009.

It also meant betting on the moody Marbury, who had two trips to the first round of the playoffs in his career. Nevertheless, the New York Daily News’ influential Mike Lupica said it was one that “Thomas had to make, the big deal Scott Layden never made.”

The Knicks went from 15-24 to 25-27, transfixing the city. A WFAN host announced, “The Knicks are back! The Knicks are back!” NBA Commissioner David Stern gushed, “The Knicks win three in a row and the whole city is rocking.”

They finished the 2003-04 season 39-43 and were swept by the New Jersey Nets in the first round of the playoffs. When Wilkens fled Saturday, the Knicks were 17-22 and the city had long since stopped rocking.

Of course, they’re still in the running, because Stern has carved the East into three divisions, including the Atlantic, where the favorites -- the Knicks, Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers -- won 39, 36 and 33 games last season, respectively.

There’s no truth to the rumor Stern is prepared to go to 30 divisions so the Knicks can finish first.

Appropriately, in their last possession under Wilkens, Marbury and Crawford passed the ball back and forth outside the three-point line until the shot clock ran out, before Houston’s Scott Padgett hit his game-winning shot Friday night.

Meanwhile, Spike Lee was courtside ... in Miami, watching the Heat and Indiana Pacers. Two years ago, he wrote a letter to the New York Times, saying it was time to rebuild, noting, “New York City fans aren’t stupid, they’re not going for okey-doke, they’re not going to be hornswoggled or bamboozled.”

The actual number of Knick fans who were being hornswoggled and bamboozled at Wilkens’ last game was a capacity 19,763.

The Marbury trade did, in fact, turn things around ... in Phoenix.

It didn’t go down too well at the time, or as the Arizona Republic’s Dan Bickley noted, “This wasn’t a blockbuster trade. This was a hope-buster trade.”

However, dumping $29 million of Marbury’s and Hardaway’s salaries put the Suns under the cap. They signed Steve Nash and the rest is history.

There’s a moral there. It’s the same moral that’s been there since 1995 when Pat Riley left, having glimpsed the future and sensed its perils.

A league with marketing problems doesn’t need the lights going out in New York, Boston and Chicago, the same cities that are so feverish in the fall and make the baseball playoffs so dramatic.

The Bulls may be getting somewhere, having gone about it the right, if the most painful, way. The Celtics under Danny Ainge are on the same path but at square one.

Meanwhile, until the Knicks figure out how to wish themselves back into contention, farce is all the NBA has on sale these days in New York.

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Faces and Figures

How embarrassed were the 76ers to move into a tie with the Celtics for first place in the division at 17-20?

“It doesn’t matter to me if we’re five games below .500 and we’ve got that first spot, because everybody’s record is the same when the playoffs start,” Aaron McKie said.

Added Coach Jim O’Brien: “It means a whole bunch to be tied for first place. That’s why you play the games, to be in first place.”

So much for the big Jason Kidd trade: The Nets, embarrassed by the team they threw out there at the start of the season, have changed their minds about moving Kidd for an expiring contract and will keep him, unless he makes them move him. Kidd, apparently not thrilled at his choice of suitors -- Minnesota and Denver -- says he’s fine where he is for the rest of the season.

More on that big Darko Milicic controversy: After the No. 2 pick in the 2003 draft whinnied about not playing -- again -- General Manager Joe Dumars threw in with Coach Larry Brown. “Darko is the most fortunate and unfortunate young guy that was drafted last year,” said Dumars. “He’s fortunate because he’s the only one who has a championship ring. He’s unfortunate because he’s playing behind some really, really good players.” ... Meanwhile, Brown said Milicic has the talent to play in this league, adding, “I’ve seen a lot more guys fail with great talent than with great character.” ... Look for Brown to leave after this season, saying it’s time for Milicic to play and he can’t bear to watch it.

Orlando assistant Paul Westhead, the former Laker coach who ran the fastest break ever at Loyola Marymount, on the Suns’ return to uptempo basketball: “The pace is real quick and they have a point guard [Nash] who pushes and deals as well as any. But Amare Stoudemire is the key. It’s different from what we did. They run their big man right down the middle of the floor and Stoudemire, he’s just scary. He runs right down the middle and you better defend him. And if you do defend him, the wings are left open. If you don’t defend him, he’s going to be tomahawking on you.”

Tracy McGrady, now derided as “Me-Mac” in Orlando, was booed throughout his return and scored 27 points in a Rocket win over the Magic.... Meanwhile, Magic General Manager John Weisbrod, noticing Steve Francis has a problem or two himself, traded Steve-O’s running mate in the so-called “Knucklehead Backcourt,” Cuttino Mobley, to Sacramento. “They’ve been together for a long time and they like one another, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that their games are ideally fit for one another,” said Weisbrod. “We’re trying to get Steve into a totally new way of playing basketball, a five-man outlook.” ... The Magic players were told of the trade minutes before going on the floor at Boston and proceeded to lose by 18. Weisbrod felt obliged to join them in Minneapolis to explain his reasoning. “That was good on his part,” veteran center Tony Battie said. “We needed to hear it from him ... move on with it. What’s done is done and what we have, we have.”