They say you can't know where you're going until you figure out where you've been, right? And considering the Isiah Era Knicks went down the toilet ... well, I'll let Alan Hahn from Newsday take over:

A call to Donnie Walsh's phone was met with a grumbling, "Hello?"

After identifying himself, the questioner asked, quite plainly: "There was a report that you're meeting Mark Jackson today at the Garden...."

"I'm not talking today," Walsh abruptly replied. "I'm not at the Garden. I didn't meet anyone at the Garden. So the report was wrong."

OK, so where are you?

"I'm in the bathroom!"

You know, there's nothing wrong with simply letting voice mail pick up sometimes. Just saying.

In any case, even if Walsh hasn't officially met with Jackson, I'm still convinced it's his to lose. Now that Larry Brown has officially unemployed there will likely be some murmurings of his past history working under Walsh, but I think everyone agrees a completely fresh start is what's really needed, which is bad news for current assistant Herb Williams, who interviewed earlier this week.

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy endorsed his assistant Patrick Ewing, but the Knicks don't seem to be interested, and even if they were, they'd likely have to wait until Orlando's postseason run ends before Magic GM Otis Smith grants permission to talk to him. Stay tuned, this might take awhile.

The Basketball Hall of Fame revealed its seven newest members on Monday: Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Pat Riley were all accepted in their first year of eligibility while Adrian Dantley, announcer Dick Vitale, Pistons owner Bill Davidson and women's collegiate coach Cathy Rush were finally accepted after falling short as finalists in the past.

Much will be written about the three big names to get the nod -- Olajuwon, Ewing and Riley -- and deservedly so, but I'm most happy for Dantley, who had to suffer through being a finalist in six of the past seven years before finally getting the nod. Dantley, who's currently a Nuggets assistant coach, was so used to being stuck as the bridesmaid that he almost didn't answer the phone when the Hall called on Thursday. From the Denver Post:

Dantley found out Thursday. "He's a funny cat, because he didn't want to take the phone call because he thought he was going to get rejected again," [Nuggets coach George] Karl said. "I kept saying: 'Tell him to take the phone call! It's gonna be a yes!' "

Dantley never has been shy about talking about his apprehension to answering the phone when the Hall calls. "Every time around the last week of March, I start feeling kind of funny, seeing whether they are going to say yea or nay," Dantley said in an interview with The Post in February. "It's a weird feeling when the guys say, 'Sorry you didn't make it, you're eligible for next year.' . . . The last couple of years I haven't even answered my phone."

I think part of the reason it was easy to overlook Dantley's contributions to the game is because he spent the bulk of his prime years in relative obscurity with the (pre-Stockton/Malone era) Utah Jazz. But he retired as one of the league's top 10 scorers of all-time, and he's still in the top 20. Had he played in the spotlight of a major market like New York, he'd have been a shoe-in years ago.

It's no secret that the New Jersey Nets don't get nearly the attention that the New York Knicks get, even though they only play 7.4 miles apart from each other. With the state the Nets are in now, that's a good thing for New Jersey. But when you had a hall-of-fame caliber point guard taking your team to the Finals, it can be frustrating.

Jason Kidd drove home this fact after the Mavs took down the Knicks, discussing wistfully how things might have been different had he simply played for the team on the other side of the river.

"We were on the wrong side of the Hudson. We were on the right side. If we were on the left side, I think things would have been funer. There would've been a lot more attention."

"The things we accomplished in that short amount of time would have been documented at a higher level. And unfortunately it wasn't.

"Who knows would have happened? That would've been ... just seeing what Patrick [Ewing] and those guys, the level they were competing for a championship, just the electricity with what the Garden brings. ... Now you see a lot of visiting teams - like LeBron going for 50 - use that to their advantage."

Superstar players have always wanted to put on a show in the Garden, because no matter how bad the Knicks are at the time, MSG is considered by many to be the "basketball Mecca." So I'm not sure that the home team necessarily plays any harder there than any team does in their own building.

Kidd might have a point though as far as his accomplishments are concerned. He did, after all, lead the Nets to two straight NBA Finals and six straight playoff appearances. The way the Knicks glorify Patrick Ewing's less productive time in New York, you'd have to think that Kidd's accomplishments would have had him placed on an even higher pedestal.