If the past week has shown the Knicks anything, it is that their humiliating off-season will not soon be forgotten.

Commissioner David Stern, in an interview broadcast Tuesday, delivered his harshest assessment yet of the Knicks, who lost a sexual-harassment case earlier this month.

Asked what the case indicated about the state of the franchise, Stern told ESPN, ?It demonstrates that they?re not a model of intelligent management. There were many checkpoints along the way where more decisive action would have eliminated this issue.?

It was not clear whether Stern was referring to the Knicks? decision not to settle the lawsuit before trial or to their handling of the harassment allegations when they first surfaced. Either way, it was clear that Stern was embarrassed by the spectacle.

Jamal Crawford has been around long enough that it takes a lot worse than shooting a dreadful 28 percent in the preseason to concern the eighth-year guard or the Knicks.

"I'm not worried about it because I shot a lot better in practice than I did in those [preseason] games," Crawford said yesterday as the Knicks prepared for their season opener Friday at Cleveland.

Crawford also appears to have the backing of Knicks' coach Isiah Thomas.

"The last thing I'm worried about is [Crawford] being able to score," Thomas said.

C. Vivian Stringer apologized to Isiah Thomas in a prepared statement Saturday, one day after saying the New York Knicks coach's comments during a trial deposition were "disgusting."

"The whole situation is most regrettable," the Rutgers women's basketball coach said. "It was not my position to insult Mr. Thomas in any way. I responded to a question of which I had partial information and was not aware of the full text of Mr. Thomas' statement. I am not in a place to make judgment on Isiah Thomas, [former team employee] Anucha Browne [Sanders] or the New York Knicks organization. I spoke to Isiah this morning and have apologized. I am hoping we can now get back to basketball."

Knicks President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach Isiah Thomas announced today that the team has exercised the fourth-year options on the contracts for forward David Lee, guard Nate Robinson and the third-year options on the contracts for forward Renaldo Balkman and guard Mardy Collins.

As part of the collective bargaining agreement, rookie contracts are set as two years in length, with team options for the player?s third and fourth seasons.

New York Knicks' forward Jared Jeffries left Friday's preseason finale against the New Jersey Nets with a sprained right knee.

Jeffries suffered the injury after colliding with New Jersey's Richard Jefferson in the first quarter. He was aided to the locker room and later taken to the hospital.

Isiah Thomas urged C. Vivian Stringer to "get the facts" about what he said during a sexual harassment trial Friday, after the Rutgers' women's coach was quoted as saying his comments during a deposition were "disgusting."

A portion of the deposition was shown in court during the trial, in which a jury ruled that Thomas and Madison Square Garden sexually harassed former team employee Anucha Browne Sanders.

Rutgers women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer didn't like it when Don Imus and his producer called her players rude and racially insensitive names. She didn't like hearing Isiah Thomas defending the use of similar language, either.

"It's disgusting. You know, I turned the dog-gone set off. I thought 'has he lost his mind,' honestly," Stringer told ESPN's Doris Burke of her reaction to comments Thomas made in a videotaped deposition for a sexual harassment lawsuit against him and the owners of the Knicks.

Eddy Curry, who has yet to play in a playoff game in his career, was asked about the Knicks' timeframe for making the playoffs on Thursday, rather than merely hoping and planning for it.

"We're at that point [now]," Curry said. "I feel like we're real close, even though we haven't played a regular season game yet. It's just a feeling here that's a lot different than it's been in the past."

New York Knickerbockers President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach Isiah Thomas announced today that guards Jared Jordan, Demetris Nichols and Walker Russell, Jr. have been waived.

Jordan 6-2, 190-pounds, averaged 4.5 minutes in six preseason games, Nichols, 6-8, 215-pounds, averaged 7.8 minutes in five preseason games and Russell, 6-0, 170-pounds, averaged 5.0 minutes in three preseason games.

The preseason roster now stands at 15.

Shareholders of Cablevision Systems Corp. rejected on Wednesday a $10.6 billion bid by the company's controlling shareholders, the Dolan family, to take the New York-area cable TV provider private.

The deal had faced opposition from large shareholders, proxy advisory firms and Wall Street analysts who said the company, which owns Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the New York Knicks, should have a higher value than the $36.26 per share the Dolans had agreed to pay.

Cablevision's CEO James Dolan announced the results of the vote at a special meeting of shareholders at the company's headquarters on New York's Long Island. The company didn't immediately release an exact count of the votes cast.

Dolan said in a statement that the family was "disappointed" that the transaction wasn't approved, but added that his family saw it as a "vote of confidence in the prospects of Cablevision."