KNICK NOTES
Allan Houston appreciates ex-Knick coach Jeff Van Gundy making him a “better, tougher” player. But for the first time yesterday the Knick captain admitted he still hasn’t come to grips with Van Gundy’s abrupt resignation two years ago, leaving the team in a lurch it still hasn’t overcome.
As Van Gundy makes his return to the Garden as Rockets coach tonight, Houston repeatedly said he had “mixed feelings.”
“There’s a lot of mixed feelings because players can’t stop playing and then just come back,” Houston told The Post. “I’m not saying his situation didn’t call for what happened. But players can’t have personal things and say, ‘I’m done.’ In that way, I have mixed feelings.”
Asked if Van Gundy should’ve quit in the summer, Houston said, “That would’ve been great, but it didn’t happen. I wished a lot of things would’ve happened that didn’t and that’s one of them.”
Van Gundy resigned five weeks into the season – Dec. 8, 2001. Houston says he hasn’t spoken to Van Gundy since the day after he quit.
“I felt bad for the guy because it seemed he was going through things,” Houston said. “But, again, I have mixed feelings because a player can go through personal things and you just expect him to go out and play.”
* Stephon Marbury, who has four brothers and three sisters, wouldn’t disclose the number of tickets he needs tonight.
“I don’t even want to say that number publicly,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
Marbury says his mother, Mabel, no longer worries about him playing in his hometown.
“My mom, a few years ago, wouldn’t have liked it at all. But she knows now I’m so much more mature. Right now she knows I want to do one thing – win a title.”