With the Isiah trial still lingering, the Knicks need to get back to business with camp opening up this week. In a minor move, they have announced that the team has acquired the draft rights to guard Jared Johnson in exchange for cash considerations, who was originally selected by the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft.

Jordan,22, is a 6-2, 190-pound Marist College product who averaged 13.1 points and 6.9 assists in 117 carer games. In his senior year, he averaged 17.2 PPG and 8.7 APG and became the first player since Avery Johnson to lead the nation in assists in NCAA Division 1 play for two consecutive seasons.

During Summer League play in Las Vegas, Jordan played with the Clippers’ team and averaged 4.2 PPG and 4.8 APG, starting all five games.

Second-year forward Rolando Balkman suffered a stress fracture and a small cartlidge in jury in his right ankle and will be fitted with a walking boot. An MRI confirmed the damage and Balkman will be re-evaluated in four weeks.

“We performed an MRI that located a stress reaction and injured cartilage,” Director of Player Care, Dr. Lisa Callahan said. “We will re-evaluate the healing process after four weeks of rest to decide how much longer it will take for Renaldo to be back on the court.”

In his rookie season, Balkman played in 68 games and averaged 4.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

The Knicks will have a half-hour television program that will be shown throughout the preseason that will be hosted by Jill Martin of MSG. Highlights will include exclusive interviews with Eddy Curry, Jamaal Crawford and David Lee.

The broadcast schedule for ‘The Knicks Experience’ is:

Sunday Sept. 23 12:30 PM WNBC
Saturday Oct. 6 1:30 PM FOX
Sunday Oct. 7 12:30 PM WNBC
Saturday Oct. 1:30 PM FOX
Sunday Oct. 21 12:30 PM WNBC
Saturday Oct. 27 1:30 PM FOX

The Knicks will tip off the 2007 preseason schedule with a neutral site game at Columbia, SC on Monday, Oct. 8 versus the Philadelphia 76ers. Their first home game will be on Oct. 11 versus Maccabi Tel Aviv. The rest of the preseason schedule is as follows:

Wednesday Oct. 17 at Boston
Thursday Oct. 18 at New Jersey
Monday Oct. 22 Boston
Wednesday Oct. 24 Philadelphia
Friday Oct. 26 New Jersey

Indivdual tickets for New York Knicks home games will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 9 AM.

Allan Houston is getting prepared for a possible comeback after retiring two years ago. The former Knick shooting guard is said to be contemplating an offer from the New Jersey Nets to attend their training camp.

The 36 year-old needs to prove that the left knee injury and subsequent arthritis he suffered in it will not hinder his movement. After holding a workout for interested teams, Houston at least has shown that he deserves a further look. The Spurs, Cavaliers, Mavericks, Heat and Knicks had personnel in attendance.

As the trial continues in downtown Manhattan, the offices a few miles north at Madison Square Garden must have their occupants shaking and scratching their heads. Settling out of court with fired employee Anucha Brown Sanders must sound more appealing now than it did a few weeks ago.

Although there is still time to recover and state their own case, Isiah Thomas and company cannot be satisfied the way things have gone so far. The Knicks’ heirarchy has appeared as a loose bunch, in more ways than one. Thomas has kept his usual happy demeanor on the way in and out of the courthouse, which may not be an indication of what he is feeling inside.

The attempts by the Garden law team to prove that Sanders was fired for incompetence has not been effective so far. She has shown bonuses and high performance reviews as a tough argument to quel any talk of incompetence.

The Thomas-Garden people have some work to do if they expect to disprove Sanders’ case.