--G Nate Robinson was arrested for driving without a license on Aug. 18. Robinson, whose license was suspended due to an unpaid ticket, is a restricted free agent.
--The Knicks will find themselves back on the national stage this season with five games on the ESPN schedule, though two of them are more for the opponents (LeBron James and Kobe Bryant) and the venue (Madison Square Garden). Last season the superstars put on incredible performances -- Kobe scored a Garden-record 61 points, LeBron had 52 -- within days of each other at the Garden. The Knicks are included for the first time in eight years on the NBA's coveted Christmas Day schedule. They will face the Miami Heat at the Garden in a noon matinee on ESPN to kick off the slate of five games. --The Knicks soon might be a publicly traded commodity, which means fans could be able to own a piece -- albeit a small one -- of their team. Cablevision Systems Corp., which owns Madison Square Garden (with assets that include the Knicks, the NHL's Rangers, the WNBA's Liberty and Radio City Music Hall, among other entities), said on July 29 that it will proceed with a plan to spin off the Garden unit as a separate company. The Garden and its teams are not for sale, according to Cablevision chief executive James Dolan, who also serves as the Garden chairman. Instead, the Garden unit will be its own company and no longer under will be the Cablevision umbrella.
The move still has to be approved by the IRS and a final vote by the Cablevision board. Dolan is set to begin a $500 million renovation of the aging Garden, which is in its fifth decade. According to Forbes, the Knicks alone are worth more than $613 million, which makes them the NBA's most valuable franchise.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I want to really make my teammates better. I want to find a way to get more assists throughout the game and keep the ball moving, so that is something I am focusing on." -- Al Harrington on what improvements he wants to make to his game this season, as told to nyknicks.com.
