"Timberwolves rookie guard Jonny Flynn returned to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night and remembered both the first game and the last one he had played there.

Unforgettable, of course, is that six-overtime Big East tournament quarterfinal game in which Flynn played 67 minutes, scored 34 points and led his Syracuse team to victory over Connecticut.

"Without that game, without that Big East tournament, I'd still be in school right now," he said.

The other game Flynn won't soon forget is the first time he played where he had seen so many times before watching his beloved Knicks play on television.

"Actually, the first game I ever played here was the worst game of my career," Flynn said of his freshman season at Syracuse. "No points, seven turnovers [only three, actually], against Ohio State, on ESPN. It was a terrible, terrible game. I was so overhyped, so happy to play here, I tried to do too much. You try to live all your childhood dreams in that game."

He, too, had dreamed many times of playing his first pro game at the Garden. This one, too, was a nightmare: The Wolves trailed 13-0, 37-10 and 68-45 by halftime alone to a Knicks team that had lost by 50 to Dallas at home on Sunday."