I was expecting a small army of nerds to show up like they do in the commercial, but Verizon only dispatched one guy to fix my phone issues. He tangled with the poison ivy and got everything squared away, so I’m back in business.

Here’s a couple of notes and quotes from my Journal News colleague Rod Boone, who visited today with Alonzo Mourning who was in the area hosting Zo’s Million Dollar Shootout at Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor. He also spoke to Shaquille O’Neal. Rod is the one guy on the staff who only needs a step stool to interview these guys.

I usually need a step ladder.

Mourning was non-committal when discussing the revamped East, which is probably the right strategy for a player who is visiting New York to collect some cash from benevolent golfers to fund a charitable foundation.   

“I think it’s still up for grabs,” he said. “It’s a long season. It’s a marathon not a sprint and I think the key down the stretch is who’s going to be the healthiest. I think that was one of our biggest problems last year. Guys weren’t healthy and it kind of really affected our play down the stretch. We weren’t really whole, so we we really couldn’t compete the way we wanted to at a high level.”

That pretty much covers all of the cliches.

Here’s what Mourning came up with when asked where the Knicks fall in the pecking order:

“Zach (Randolph) is a great player, but he still has to mesh with a brand new team,” he said. “So that is going to be a transition within itself. We have a championship team. We’ve got our core group of guys that we expect to come back. But hey, it’s still up for grabs. I like our chances, especially when we are healthy. We’ve got a healthy Shaq, a healthy D-Wade, myself, J-Will. And with the additions of Penny and Smush Parker, I think those guys are hungry and they’ve got a lot of things to prove. We are going to have a great bench and I think Pat Riley is still working on trying to make some deals happen to make us better.”

How cool would it be to resume a Knicks-Heat rivalry?

O’Neal also held court, but you’ll have to read the story Rod crafted to get that end of the conversation. He acted surprised to hear the Knicks landed Randolph, which in all likelihood was just a fun and games.

He did talk about teaming up with Penny Hardaway again.

“They say that Penny looks great,” O’Neal said. “He signed a non-guaranteed contract, which tells me that he just wants to come in and ball and get his name back up to par.”

Nice use of a golf analogy.

Allan Houston was on hand, too. He was a late arrival, though, and wasn’t able to stop and discuss whether a comeback is on the horizon.