Starks reality
Riley reveals ‘biggest mistake’ in new book
Former Knicks beat writer Alan Hahn is dishing out his postgame analysis nightly on MSG Network, but hasn’t strayed far from his writing roots. Hahn is also dishing out two historical Knicks books for Christmas — “100 Things Knicks Fans Must Know and Do Before They Die’’ and the coffee table book, “The New York Knicks: The Complete Illustrated History.’’
Hahn didn’t plan on having two books come out at roughly the same time, but the initial book got delayed because of last year’s lockout.
“It got held up, so now they’re competing against each other,’’ Hahn told The Rumble. “I’d like to call them a young fan’s history test book. There’s a lot of new young fans now that they’re good again, and they don’t have a good historical reference to the team.’’
Hahn did the extensive research on the books in his final months as a sportswriter. “100 Things’’ is a series of Hahn essays, including two looks at what-coulda-been as far as breaking the championship drought.
Former Knicks coach Pat Riley tells Hahn his worst regret: not yanking John Starks during his 2-of-18 brickfest in Game 7 of the 1994 Finals vs. Houston. Rolando Blackman grew icicles on the bench.
“I got caught up in a short rotation, that’s why we brought Rolando there,’’ Riley said. “Immediately afterward I knew if we had played the two of them, Doc [Rivers] and especially Ro, we would’ve won the championship.’’
“That’s the biggest mistake I ever made.’’
Hahn also has a chapter on what could have been if Patrick Ewing and Bernard King ever got on the court together. They were together on the roster for two seasons.
“We would’ve won a championship [if I was healthy], there’s no doubt in my mind,’’ King said.
King missed Ewing’s rookie year, 1985-86, after knee surgery. In 1986-87, King came back for the final six games but Ewing had just sprained his own knee.
“We’ll never know,’’ Ewing says in the book.
In the illustrated history, Hahn puts a new coat of paint on detailing the exploits of former Knicks legends, even with a chapter on Linsanity. There’s also “legend’’ snapshots on Nate Robinson and Stephon Marbury.
“You’re hard-pressed to find too many legends from that decade,’’ Hahn said.
Analyst: 50/50 chance of Rex return
Sports analyst Danny Sheridan has established Rex Ryan as even-money to be fired as Jets coach at the end of the season. Owner Woody Johnson may like Ryan, Sheridan said, but he doesn’t like losing and tabloid headlines about “buttfumble” of a season.
Sheridan’s other even-money (1:1) coaches on the hot seat in the NFL: Cleveland’s Pat Shurmur: Buffalo’s Chan Gailey, Arizona’s Ken Whisenhunt, Chicago’s Lovie Smith, Dallas’ Jason Garrett, Tennessee’s Mike Munchak and Carolina’s Ron Rivera.
San Diego coach Norv Turner (1:25) looks certain to go, and Chargers GM A.J. Smith (1:5) likely will join him.
Andy Reid (1:5) received a “win or else” order from owner Jeff Lurie and didn’t deliver. Reid will land on his feet next season, just as Jeff Fisher did.
And don’t expect Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel (1:4) back either.
However, Giants coach Tom Coughlin is as safe as can be. Sheridan put the odds of Coughlin being fired at 1,000,00:1. The Mara-Tisch ownership group always stands by their man, Sheridan said, especially their Hall of Fame coach.
Snee & Co. love pizza Fridays
Chris Snee was spotted exiting the Giants locker room on Friday toting a pizza box compliments of Umberto’s of New Hyde Park.
“My kids love it,” Snee said. “They know that Fridays [are] pizza from Long Island, and they’re excited about it. Usually that’ll last, they’ll eat it Friday, they’ll eat it Saturday.”
Halftime painting in auction
Performance painter and finalist on this season’s “America’s Got Talent” David Garibaldi, painted a Statue of Liberty during halftime of the Knicks-Nets game on Dec. 19. The painting was signed by the entire Knicks roster and is being auctioned off on CharityBuzz.com. The proceeds will be donated to the Garden of Dreams Foundation. Garibaldi tours all over the world with his specialty “Rhythm and Hue” stage act in which he rapidly creates paintings of notable rock musicians.