It has been seven months since the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets exchanged key players Marcus Camby and Antonio McDyess, and with the duo playing a combined 6 minutes 17 seconds with their new teams who did win the trade?

If you listen to ex-Knick Marcus Camby the answer is simple - the Nuggets won hands down.

"Obviously Denver [won the trade]," Camby said following Nuggets practice yesterday at John Jay College. "They got Nene [Hilario] and they got me. We're both young, we're both going to be here for a long time."

The Knicks on the otherhand claim to be happy to be rid of Camby, stating that the talented forward is simly too brittle for the rigors of the NBA season.

"Every year you get hurt, naturally that cloud continues to hang over," Chaney said. "What he has to do is have one or two years where he's completely healthy."

Camby was the player who played those whole six minutes that the two combined by, but after just 17 seconds into his Nuggets debut Camby came down from a rebound attempt and sprained his ankle.  While he later returned to that game against Cleveland the Nuggets are not expecting the athletically gifted bigman to suit up against this old ballclub.

"I would love to play in the Garden and go against those guys. It's my favorite arena to play in and the Garden's been great to me," Camby said. "If it doesn't happen, they come to our place in April. This is not a life or death situation like people are making it out to be."

With Camby and McDyess both non-factors for their respective teams, the deal at present boils down to Nene Halario from the Knicks for Frank Wiliams of the Nuggets.  While Williams has played sparingly after being injured eariler in the season, Halario has been brilliant for the Nuggets and will make an appearance in this year's rookie game in February.

"(Hilario has) improved, and he'll continue to improve because of his desire for the game," New York coach Don Chaney said. "He wants to work and do better, and he enjoys the game. Guys with that kind of attitude always improve."

"The trade was good for both teams," GM Kiki Vandeweghe said. "No one likes for guys to be injured. Antonio's injury was a freak thing, and Marcus is going to be back and going to be healthy at some point. With Hilario, he's turned out to be very good and has made great progress."

Camby claims "it's up in the air" whether he plays tonight, but Fred Kerber of the New York Post writes that Nuggets sources have already ruled him out.  Vandeweghe also met with Camby and told him not to be worried about missing the game against his old team.

Camby, it seems, is more fussed with the recent talk that he is disheartened to be in Denver and wants out than in playing against the Knicks.  He said in a recent interview that he "is an East Coast guy", but later stated that this did not translate into him demanding a trade.  It seems his buddy and current Knick Latrell Sprewell interpreted Camby's comments as just that, stating "I knew he wouldn't be happy out there."

"It wasn't the case," said Camby. "I wish you could find me one quote that said I wanted to be traded. I see Latrell said I wanted to be traded. I'm not going to go out and start rumors. The city's great. Clean air. I miss the smell. I landed in Jersey [Monday] and smelled the swamp."