"At yesterday's practice at Amway Center, a national writer was working on a piece regarding Raymond Felton's brilliant first season with the Knicks as their electric new point guard.

But Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, who has a soft spot for former point guard Chris Duhon, continued to defend Duhon's horrible two-year run in New York as Stephon Marbury's successor.

Tonight the Knicks face the Magic, who signed Duhon over the summer as a free agent. Ironically, the Magic tried to sign Duhon two years ago before D'Antoni begged Knicks president Donnie Walsh to ink Duhon because he felt he couldn't coach Marbury's ego. The result was a 61-103 record over those two seasons when Duhon was the starting point guard.

Duhon has fallen out of the rotation since the Magic's recent blockbuster trades ago and they are looking to ship him. As a Magic backup, Duhon is averaging 3.5 points and 2.8 assists. "I think he did a good job," D'Antoni said. "It was two years where nobody was on the same page. It's tough. We had a plan everybody knew. As soon as the team bonded, we made a trade. Rightly so. It wasn't fair to Chris to hold everybody together."

In fact, D'Antoni made an unfortunate reference regarding Felton's chances of being an All-Star, saying Amar'e Stoudemire has a lot to do with it and not Felton's excellent decision-making while playing at the highest speed possible."