And we're not talking about Corey Benjamin.

Fact: If Larry Johnson simply retires for the heck of it, he would leave the remainder of his contract on the table. How eager would you be to walk away from nearly $29 million?

Newsday reports that the Knicks are trying to get LJ to retire the medical way, much like they did with Luc Longley. If the Knicks can prove that LJ's injured back will not allow him to play again, all parties may win. LJ gets his money. The Knicks pay the remainder of LJ's contract with insurance money. And there is an outside shot that the Knicks could receive another Disabled Player Exception. Only this one could be worth close to $5 million.

The had a $2.9-million exception for Longley, but it expired at midnight Monday without being used in a trade or free-agent signing. "We never got close to anything," Layden said. "There were a lot of different proposals, but nothing that made sense."