Ex-NBA star happy ‘my guy’ Latrell Sprewell back at MSG

NEW ORLEANS — Chris Webber, one of Latrell Sprewell’s buddies, said it was a long time coming to see the former Knicks All-Star at the Garden a week ago Sunday.

Sprewell and Larry Johnson sat in baseline seats with owner James Dolan between them. Though it was an obvious public-relations stunt after Charles Oakley’s Garden arrest, the Knicks had been trying to get Sprewell back in the arena in recent months.

Sprewell and Dolan were at odds after he cursed the owner out in his Garden return with the Timberwolves in 2003 after being traded. Sprewell was once fined by the NBA for tampering when he told The Post he wanted to see Webber sign with the Knicks.

“That’s my guy,’’ Webber told The Post after being named a Hall of Fame finalist Saturday. “Whoever plays for a team, all you want to do is get back in the doors and be accepted and get free tickets. Being that I go to arenas all around the country now, I see their best players in those arenas.’’

Webber, the former Sacramento stud who ultimately bypassed the Knicks as a free agent, is amid a successful broadcasting career with TNT/NBA TV.

“That ’99 team is the only one I remember going to the championship in recent history,’’ Webber said of that Sprewell-led Knicks club that faced the Spurs. “It would make sense to have all those guys there. Think about recent Knicks memories — that Miami series. It would make sense to keep those memories there.

“I had friends calling me from New York — Spree’s here, Spree’s here. It was a good memory for everyone to remind people what it was like in the good days.”

Oakley ripped Sprewell thereafter, saying he was used as a pawn in his odyssey.