"Chauncey Billups was walking without a limp last night at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, looking chipper as he accepted the Mannie Jackson Human Spirit Award. Billups also received a warm handshake from commissioner David Stern during the pre-dinner cocktail hour.

Billups, whose left knee injury in Game 1 of the first-round series vs. the Celtics was a killer blow to the Knicks, might one day make it to Springfield for his basketball exploits.

But for now, Billups, still not 100 percent, is just trying to prove he can be a productive, healthy, floor general for the Knicks in 2011-12, if the lockout does not cancel the season.

"I think I got a lot to offer my team when the season starts," Billups told The Post last night. "I'm looking forward to showing people I'm still me. I don't have anything to prove. I've proved everything throughout my career. My body of work speaks for itself. However, I really wish I could've been healthy my whole time in New York and things would've been a lot different."

Tonight is the main event with headliners Chris Mullin of Brooklyn and Dennis Rodman of Mars being enshrined into the Hall of Fame, along with Artis Gilmore."