Allan Houston was the "best player" on the New York Knicks last season.

At least that's the opinion of incoming coach Larry Brown, who plans to have the chronically sore-kneed shooting guard ready to go when training camp begins next week.

Meeting with reporters Thursday for the first time since he was hired, Brown had only complimentary things to say regarding nearly everything Knick-related -- from Jerome James' desire to Nate Robinson's potential to Maurice Taylor's enthusiasm.

Brown even said he anticipated working again with Stephon Marbury, although he may have slighted the self-proclaimed best point guard in the NBA during the process.

Asked to give his impression of what went wrong for the Knicks last season after they ended December with a 16-13 record, Brown brought up the knee injury that has kept Houston sidelined for the better part of the past two seasons.

"They started out pretty darn good, but when you lose an Allan Houston, you know, your best player, it's pretty difficult to overcome that," Brown said.

Bulls free-agent center Eddy Curry will slip through Isiah Thomas' mitts again. The Post has learned the Knicks offered Chicago a sign-and-trade package of Tim Thomas and Michael Sweetney for the ailing big center, but has been rejected repeatedly by GM John Paxson.

Barring a trade, Curry, suffering from heart irregularities, is expected to sign the Bulls' one-year, $5 million qualifying offer before Saturday's deadline, according to his Jersey-based attorney, Ed Milstein.

Curry has been commiserating on the phone almost daily with his best friend, Knick guard, Jamal Crawford, who's worked behind the scenes to get him to New York.

"They're not trading him," one team executive said.

The Knicks offered the Bulls a package that would start Curry at more than $13M and give Chicago cap relief after season. Tim Thomas' contract ($13.5M) and Sweetney's ($2.1M) expire after the season. Isiah has offered Thomas in multiple deals because of his tradable contract and the Knick glut at swingman.

Phil Ford and Dave Hanners rejoined coach Larry Brown on Tuesday when they were hired as New York Knicks assistants.

Ford spent last season as an assistant under Brown at Detroit. He served 12 years as a North Carolina assistant, including the 1993 NCAA championship season. Ford was the 1979 NBA rookie of the year.

Hanners was an assistant the last two seasons with the Pistons. He has 17 years of coaching experience, including three with the Philadelphia 76ers under Brown. He also worked for 12 seasons on the North Carolina staff.

They join Herb Williams, Mark Aguirre and George Glymph on the Knicks staff.

Lenny Wilkens appeared taut as he departed the Knicks eight months ago, dressed somberly in a dark blue suit and reading awkwardly from a statement intended to mask his frustration.

Wilkens returned to New York yesterday for a charity benefit. He wore a relaxed smile and a sparkly ring commemorating the gold medal won by the United States national team in the 1992 Olympics. His pride is intact, even if his tenure with his hometown Knicks was too short and too tumultuous for his liking.

In what was termed a resignation, Wilkens vacated his post on Jan. 22, a little more than a year after he was hired.

Speaking about his abrupt departure for the first time, Wilkens insisted yesterday that he had left on his terms. Yet he hinted more than once that he wanted to stay. A variety of unspecified issues made it impossible, he said.

"Naturally, it was disappointing," Wilkens said. "We had injuries, we had all kinds of problems. We were all never on the same page." Asked if he was referring solely to the roster turmoil, or to individual player agendas, Wilkens pressed a thin smile and said, "Everything."

"I never really had a chance to know the players individually," Wilkens said. "I thought when they were on the floor, they worked hard. But I never really got to know them."

Over parts of two seasons under Wilkens, the Knicks went 40-41. Allan Houston, once the Knicks' best player, contributed minimally before succumbing to knee problems in each season. At the time Wilkens left, the Knicks had lost 9 of 10 games while coping with injuries to Houston, Jamal Crawford, Penny Hardaway, Tim Thomas and Mike Sweetney.

"I never really had Allan Houston," Wilkens said. "So I don't know what our team could have been."

According to New York Daily News writer Frank Isola, Knicks president Isiah Thomas is not giving up on Eddy Curry, proposing a deal last week that is believed to have included Michael Sweetney. The Bulls rejected the package.

If Curry is not traded by Oct. 1, he will sign a one-year, $5.1 million contract with Chicago and then become an unrestricted free agent in July.

Thomas has been trying to acquire the former lottery pick since last summer and remains interested even though in July he signed veteran center Jerome James to a six-year contract.

Eddy Curry's agent said Saturday he has found a team that is a willing buyer in a sign-and-trade for the Bulls' center. The agent, Leon Rose, declined to name the team, but sources familiar with the negotiations said it was the Knicks.

Bulls general manager John Paxson said he would not pursue the proposal, which Rose said he made about a week ago.

"Unless there's a deal out there I want to make, I'm not making it," said Paxson, clearly angered by Rose's announcement. "I'm not going to give Eddy Curry away."

Worse for Curry, a three-year offer from the Bulls appears to be off the table, leaving him with only the one-year qualifying offer of $5.14 million.

"They've already rejected it," Paxson said of the short-term contract offer.

At this point, any other contract offer is "not going to happen," Paxson said. "There are too many questions."

Those questions always come back to Curry's risky heart condition, which was diagnosed last spring.

Unless a sign-and-trade can be put together, or another team gives him an offer sheet by Oct. 1, Curry will have no choice but to accept the qualifying offer.

A source close to Curry said Paxson will not negotiate with an Eastern Conference team but has sent out feelers to Memphis and Denver, both from the Western Conference. Paxson said he has not spoken to representatives from either team.

"I don't think it's my obligation to cold-call teams," he said.

The Knicks may make one more roster move before training camp starts in 19 days, but in the meantime, Larry Brown's coaching staff is taking shape.

With assistant Mike Malone officially departing for Cleveland this week, where he'll essentially replace his father Brendan, Brown (who turned 65 Wednesday) is expected to add two members of his old Pistons staff with whom he shares North Carolina ties.

Dave Hanners, an assistant with Brown in Philadelphia and Detroit, and Phil Ford, who joined Brown's staff last season, will join the staff along with the man Brown replaced as head coach, Herb Williams, pending any last-minute snafus.

What their arrival means for returning assistants Mark Aguirre (Isiah Thomas' pal) and George Glymph is uncertain, although one or both could be reassigned within the organization. Brendan Suhr, who joined the staff three games into last season when Dick Helm was fired, is returning to his front-office job.

The owners of Madison Square Garden, the arena that traces its origins back to P. T. Barnum 131 years ago and became the site of New York City's most famous boxing matches and basketball games, are in talks with two developers to build its fifth incarnation, a block west of its current home atop Pennsylvania Station.

The new Garden, which would remain home to the Rangers and the Knicks, would improve on the arena's cramped and inefficient quarters by featuring wide concourses with stores and restaurants, luxury boxes with better sight lines for basketball and hockey games, a museum and a hall of fame.

Like the three prior incarnations of the Garden, the existing arena, which sits like a giant doughnut amid the Penn Plaza office complex between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, would be demolished. It would be replaced by skyscrapers containing a mix of luxury apartments, office space and stores.

New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury broke down into tears as he discussed the devestation stricken region in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He emphasized that it's not about the money; it's about getting as many people and their families to safety as fast as possible.

He also noted that he could give as much as $1 Million Dollars to the efforts. The New Orleans Hornets may be displaced by as much as a year because of damage to their area. Other NBA Teams and Players have given a combined $2 Million so far.