Nate Robinson is excited about the upcoming season, even if he will be primarily coming off the bench.

"I think we need to bring some excitement back to the Garden, and I can help with that," Robinson said. "Right now my job is to provide a spark off the bench and be an energy guy, but I'm working hard to be more than that."

Ron Artest said yesterday that he would finish his career with the Sacramento Kings, ending any possibility that the Queensbridge product would suit up for the Knicks.

But Artest joked that he knew how to fix the Knicks and could help Isiah Thomas - his former coach with the Indiana Pacers - run the team after his retirement.

"I think (the Knicks) can turn it around, but they need some rest and less partying in New York City," Artest said with a smile at a press conference at a midtown restaurant to announce that the All-Star Classic for Wheelchair Charities will be held at the Garden on Saturday, Sept.9. "That's my bid to be a general manager."

Artest didn't offer any specifics on how he would improve the Knicks, who won just 23 games last season, but said he didn't like to see his hometown team suffer last year.

"Every time they lost I felt bad," Artest said. "I didn't want to see them lose."

Shaquille O'Neal said Stephon Marbury should let his play speak for itself and speculated that the Knicks' point guard would have been better off playing another season for Larry Brown.

"If you say you're the best point guard in the world, now you have to come out and show that every night," O'Neal said on SportsNet New York. "The only time when I really say that is when I have a real big game. You never really heard me say I'm the best center to ever play the game. When you say that, you have to come out and show that every night, especially here in New York."

When asked before a game against the Nets during the 2004-05 season how he would match up with Jason Kidd, Marbury replied, "I'm the best point guard in the NBA."

Sixers president Billy King has said that a report stating that the 76ers have approached the Knicks to discuss a deal involving Chris Webber wasn't accurate, according to PhillyBurbs.com.

Asked if he contacted New York and others about a trade involving Webber, King said in an e-mail response, ?No, not at all.?

A source close to the situation said that the Knicks initially approached the Sixers, although it seemed unlikely King was interested in Knicks president Isiah Thomas' apparent offer of a package involving Quentin Richardson and Maurice Taylor for the 33-year-old Webber.

Richardson, a swingman who likes to shoot 3-pointers, is set to earn $6.96 million this season, followed by $8.1 million, $8.8 million and a player option for $9.35 million in 2009-10. Taylor, a power forward, is heading into the final year of a deal in which he'll make $9.75 million.

In light of the Knicks' acquisition of Jared Jeffries, a source has indicated that Isiah Thomas has been discouraged by James Dolan to add any additional significant salary.

This led to Thomas' meek offer to the Sixers for Chris Webber.

Stephon Marbury said yesterday it was a blessing that Knick owner James Dolan put the heat on Isiah Thomas by giving the new coach a one-year ultimatum, believing that Dolan's pronouncement is motivation for the whole team.

"That's a good thing he said that," Marbury said. "It makes us better. That's the best time to perform, when there's pressure. You're either going to do it or you're not. We're used to doing it."

League sources have told Steve Adamek of the Bergen Record, the 76ers have approached the Knicks about a trade for Chris Webber, but weren't satisfied with Isiah Thomas' offer.

Quentin Richardson, who has $33.8 million over four seasons left on his contract and Maurice Taylor,whose $9.75 million contract expires after this season, were the starting points of the Knicks' offer.

Because of Webber's hefty salary, the Knicks would have to send additional pieces to Philadelphia.

Joe Dumars turned to a friend and former Pistons backcourt teammate to help enshrine him in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, the Detroit Free Press reported Sunday.

Isiah Thomas will present Dumars when the Pistons president is enshrined on September 8-9 in Springfield, Mass. Only members of the Hall of Fame may present new members; Thomas, who won NBA titles with Dumars in 1989 and 1990, joined the Hall in 2000.

A tugboat managed to free former NBA star Latrell Sprewell's yacht on Thursday afternoon.

The boat had been grounded since the previous night.

Milwaukee's Best, a 68-foot vessel owned and operated by Sprewell, of River Hills, was spotted in trouble Wednesday about 8 p.m., when police were notified the boat had drifted from its anchor and lodged in about 3 feet of water close to shore, said Sgt. Don Jensen from the city's Harbor Patrol.

"Our guys worked on it for about three or four hours," Jensen said. Although the police had joined forces with Coast Guard crews, they never got the yacht to budge.

In a 12-page court document filed Wednesday, Isiah Thomas denied sexually harassment charges against him made by Anucha Browne Sanders.

Her "inability to accept the changes that occurred under Thomas' leadership fueled her antipathy toward Thomas and are reflected by this meritless lawsuit," Thomas' lawyers said in papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court, the Daily News reported.

According to the papers, Thomas admits he "greeted plaintiff by placing his hand on her shoulder and attempting to kiss her on the cheek."

But he categorically denied all of Browne Sanders' accusations.

"Many of the allegations are without any factual support and those that have some semblance of accuracy have been distorted," Thomas' defense attorney, Peter Parcher, wrote.