Marc Berman of the New York Post reports that the Knicks finalized the signing of Lee Nailon yesterday. He then rode the Amtrak to Philadelphia to meet up with his new team. He will practice with the Knicks today at Philadelphia Community College.

The 6-9 small forward will make his debut tomorrow night against the Sixers.

The Knicks are hoping that Nailon?s size will help alleviate the lack of height along the frontcourt. They also want him to be an offensive presence on the floor.

"He's true to the position," Chaney said of Nailon. "He's a true small forward. I think it's great, great to have a bona-fide small forward in that position and a guy who can score. He can definitely score. He can face up and shoot the ball and he can also post-up."

Nailon?s defense is suspect, but he should have no problem supplanting Shandon Anderson at the small forward position until Latrell Sprewell returns from his hand injury.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports that Lee Nailon may have finally found a home. After being re-signed, then waived by the Hornets, he has agreed in principal to a one-year contract with the Knicks. The team waived Toby Bailey to open a roster spot for Nailon. The signing is expected to be announced today.

The addition of Nailon could mean the end of Latrell Sprewell?s tenure as a Knick. Nailon and Sprewell play the same position, but Nailon is bigger, younger and less expensive.

Nailon traveled to New York after talking with coach Don Chaney. It is believed that he agreed to a one-year deal worth between $850,000 and $900,000. He did not travel to the team to Detroit but may be present at today?s shootaround.

The Knicks were interested in signing Nailon during the summer but held off because they expected Sprewell to play the small forward position. There were upset to learn that Sprewell had broken his hand during the offseason. They were more upset because they learned of the injury one day after Nailon had re-signed a deal with the Hornets.

The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have waived forward Lee Nailon and guard Terrell McIntyre. The roster is now set at 14 players.

"By waiving Nailon and McIntyre now, we solidify our roster and give Lee a better chance of landing on another team," said Hornets Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Bob Bass.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports that the Knicks are seriously considering claiming Nailon and his contract off of waivers. They have the ability to do so because of the recently granted injury exception awarded to the team to replace Antonio McDyess.

If the Knicks are able to claim the 6-9 small forward, it would put them in a better position to trade Latrell Sprewell.

At least they can laugh now.

"You're opening those old wounds up, huh?" Orlando Magic Coach Doc Rivers joked.

The Charlotte Hornets are the New Orleans Hornets now, but it makes no difference to the Magic. Their memories are of a big, bruising team that battered them during a first-round playoff series last spring.

The teams will meet again at 7 tonight at TD Waterhouse Centre for a preseason game, and the Magic are eager to see what their revamped frontcourt can do against the Eastern Conference's most rugged group.

The Hornets likely will be without starting big men P.J. Brown and Elden Campbell, so if the Magic have success, they will keep it in perspective. Despite that, the Hornets jersey still represents what the Magic failed to do last season.

The Hornets left the Magic swollen and limping. They outrebounded the Magic 200-158 in four games and won the best-of-five series 3-1.

Rivers is not going to let the Magic forget such a beating.

"I hope not," Rivers said. "They destroyed us on the boards. It's amazing when you look at the rebounding numbers that those games were close. If someone looked at the stat sheet and saw those rebounding numbers, they'd say, 'It's a blowout.'

"I couldn't figure that one out, to be honest. We remember that, and that's one of the areas we have to improve on. If we don't, we're going nowhere."

It's difficult to tell where the Magic's frontcourt stands. They are working hard, as evidenced by the "Big Man's Club" extra drills that the coaches designed to make or break the players.

Horace Grant practiced for the first time Monday as he recovers from surgery on his left knee, but he is not expected to play. Shawn Kemp has focused more on conditioning than game preparation this preseason. Newcomer Olumide Oyedeji sometimes looks lost trying to learn the system. Andrew DeClercq is looking to be more consistent. Pat Burke and Obinna Ekezie are playing well, but both are unproven.

"I don't think you have to be considered rugged," Kemp said. "You just have to be able to get the job done."

What equates to getting the job done is an interesting question for the Magic. A nice first step would be holding their own on the glass. The Magic's big men are striving to do so.

"I've seen a lot of underdogs come up and be something great," Oyedeji said.

He can't help it. Every time Magic Coach Doc Rivers starts talking about tonight's preseason opponent, he refers to them as the Charlotte Hornets.

"I probably called them Charlotte 15 times today," a flummoxed Rivers said after Monday's practice. "They're New Orleans, right?"

That's the rumor, anyway. The Orlando Magic will host the New Orleans Jazz, er, Hornets tonight and later this week they will play the Vancouver Grizzlies. Or is it the Memphis Grizzlies? Or the Memphis Showboats? Or the Memphis Texans?

Does anybody really know what team it is? Does anybody really care?

What we do know is this: Cities and the elected officials who run them are the most fiscally irresponsible boneheads in the world. They spend like a bunch of drunken Democrats. I'm not talking about taxpayer money being spent to get teams or even to keep teams; I'm talking about spending even more taxpayer money to get new teams when much less money could have been spent to keep the old teams.

Take Charlotte. The city steadfastly refused to build a new arena for the Hornets -- which is understandable considering how owner George Shinn poisoned the ticket-buying public against him. But what did Shinn care? He simply packed up his team and moved to New Orleans, where a new arena and sweetheart lease agreement awaited.

At first, Charlotte fans never thought Shinn would leave. They never thought the NBA would let him leave. Then, when it was clear he was about to leave, they huffed, "Let him go. We're better off without the NBA."

And the minute the Hornets left, you know what Charlotte did? It got down on its knees, crawled straight to the NBA and begged for an expansion franchise. So now the city must build a $257.5 million arena and find an owner willing to pay a $300 million expansion fee to the league. And, oh, by the way, that expansion fee will be split among the existing owners, which means Charlotte will be putting about $12 million in Shinn's pocket. Poetic injustice.

To summarize: Charlotte will spend in the neighborhood of $600 million for an expansion team full of rookies and rejects that won't be competitive for a decade. Wouldn't it have been much simpler and cheaper just to keep the Hornets -- a talented playoff team and one of the favorites to win the Eastern Conference?

Are you listening, Orlando? The arena issue with the Magic has been put on the back burner for now, but it's going to resurface sooner than you might think. And how many times do we have to say this: In the long run, team owners always win.

Cleveland wouldn't build Browns owner Art Modell a new stadium, but Baltimore would. So Modell moved his NFL team, and Cleveland ended up spending nearly twice as much to build a new stadium for an expansion franchise. Same with Houston, which let the Oilers move to Nashville and then built a $500 million stadium and paid a $700 million fee for the expansion Texans.

We all know sooner or later that Orlando is going to have to build a new arena to keep the Magic. That's a given. TD Waterhouse Centre, while not physically antiquated, is economically antiquated. Which is to say it is not built to efficiently suck the most money out of the richest fans.

The Hornets have moved to New Orleans, and the Magic will someday soon face Charlotte's dilemma.

For sports owners, home is not where the heart is; home is where the publicly funded $300 million arena is.

You can pay them now or pay them more later.

Mike Bianchi

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports that the Knicks are sending a message to Latrell Sprewell. Upset that he didn?t inform them about his broken hand, they have told him to stay away from the teams? training camp in South Carolina.

GM Scott Layden has arranged a big meeting with Sprewell and Don Chaney when they get back Monday. It's akin to being called into the principal's office. "It's good for him to stay away right now," Chaney said.

Reports say that the Knicks would have tried to sign another player if Sprewell had informed them of the injury. Lee Nailon was high on the Knicks? list, but he re-signed with the Hornets just before camp.

Monday, Sprewell told trainer Mike Saunders he banged his hand two weeks ago. The Knicks want to know how he did it before deciding on a fine. One of Sprewell's close friends told The Post, "He has no clue how he did it. He works out all the time and he's on his boat."

"Any player out should be watching," Chaney said. "But we feel at this juncture, I want to speak to him and find out the details on everything. We feel as a group we should go over some things. I think it's up in the air about the injury itself."

With their mid-level exception still available, the Knikcs are interested in Jimmy Jackson. They may also talk to other free-agent small forwards like Tyrone Nesby and ex-Knick Johnny Newman.