NBA Insider with Ken Berger

A few thoughts rattling around the basketball brain of yours truly:

I’m shocked this Isiah case is going to trial. If the Garden can pay Jerome James $6 million a year, why not make the same offer to Anucha Browne Sanders?

Sorry to hear about Shaq’s divorce. Must be Kobe’s fault.

Allan Houston is now “90 to 95 percent sure” he will return to the NBA this season. His agent, Bill Strickland, says Houston will hold a private workout for “several” teams on Tuesday. Will let you know if the Knicks are one of those teams, but I seriously doubt it.

Speaking of Kobe, it’s crazy how he’s being received like royalty on his Nike tour of Asia. If he thinks he’s huge in Manila, he should see what would happen in Manhattan if he ever wound up wearing a Knicks jersey.

I always read Mark Cuban’s blog. No. 1, the guy is entertaining. No. 2, he’s made a gazillion dollars with his innovations in online video and has some interesting ideas about how to use the Internet wisely and profitably – ideas the newspaper industry should listen to.

No. 3, he went to Indiana, and so did I. He made a joke the last time he was in the Garden, saying that when Isiah was there he (Cuban) was “just a freshman alcoholic.” That must’ve been true, because Cuban actually had his dates mixed up. I think he was a senior when Isiah was a freshman. Anyway, I didn’t know Cuban and I had the same major.

But I digress.

Check out www.blogmaverick.com, which is always worth reading – especially lately. Cuban is in a bit of a tinkling match with one of the producers for Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News. Funny stuff.

Speaking of Kobe, I guess the fawning “journalists” at his news conference in the Philippines Wednesday were too busy making goo-goo eyes to ask him if he still wants the Lakers to trade him. Or if he plans to show up at training camp in a few weeks.

Seriously, if the Knicks won’t use their mid-level exception on Anucha Browne Sanders, don’t you wish they’d give it to Charles Oakley? Just, like, for the heck of it?

I'm printing out and saving Peaceman's bold predictions for when, to whom, and for what Kobe eventually will be traded. He was so precise and sure of himself, I'm wondering if he got tipped off by Tim Donaghy.

Some of you have suggested in your comments that the Knicks should be shopping Nate Robinson hard. I agree, and I think that’s what this whole N8 transformation angle has really been about this summer. Be patient. Isiah is sitting on some very tradeable assets and will be ready to pounce if and when Kobe or Artest officially become available.

Unless, of course, he’s on the witness stand that day.