Opponent: New York Knicks

When: 7 p.m.

Where: KeyArena, Seattle

TV: KONG (Ch. 6/16)

Radio: KJR (950 AM)

Probable starters: For Seattle – forwards Rashard Lewis (6 feet, 10 inches) and Vlade Radmanovic (6-10), center Jerome James (7-1), guards Brent Barry (6-6) and Antonio Daniels (6-4). For New York – forwards Keith Van Horn (6-10) and Kurt Thomas (6-9), center Dikembe Mutombo (7-2), guards Allen Houston (6-6) and Howard Eisley (6-2).

Fans at KeyArena often boo visiting teams and players, and that’s OK. The same thing happens to the Sonics on the road.

Still, those folks attending tonight’s New York-Seattle game might want to toss some applause at Knicks forward Antonio McDyess, an outstanding player who has made a remarkable return from multiple knee injuries and surgeries.

Until Monday night, McDyess had not played in an NBA game since March 20, 2002. His string of injuries, though, actually began in October of 2001 when he tore the patella tendon in his left knee while with the Denver Nuggets. He missed 54 games, played in 10 games, then sat out the rest of the season.

McDyess, a 2000 U.S. Olympian, was then traded to New York, but in the 2002-03 preseason he fractured his left patella, which was unrelated to his previous injury. Then, last April he hurt the knee again, delaying his return until Monday’s game against Detroit.

Which is why McDyess, in the moments before tipoff, became so overcome with emotion that he left the bench and returned to the locker room for several minutes.

Alone in the locker room, “I sat back and said to myself, ‘I never expected to be back on the court.’ Honestly, there were times when I thought I was going to just have to retire and give up,” McDyess said.

Statistically, he had one of the worst games of his career, missing all five field goal tries and managing just two free throws and three rebounds in 13 minutes.

“I didn’t really care about the statistics,” New York coach Don Chaney said. “I just wanted him to get out and run up and down the floor, experience what it’s like to play at this level. I thought we got what we wanted to accomplish.”

Center shuffle: Though Jerome James has taken the starting center spot from Calvin Booth for now, McMillan said he isn’t yet locked into a regular first five.

He’d like to be, but he isn’t.

“I don’t want to switch lineups,” McMillan said. “I want a solid eight-, nine- or 10-man rotation, and then we’ll go with that. It’s a lot easier for me if I could keep that for the entire season.”

But because the Sonics have been so erratic, “I don’t think anything is guaranteed,” he said. “I’m committing to people earning their time on the floor. That is the way this game is supposed to be played. And if you do that, then you’ll play.”

James played well at times vs. Houston, but still committed some foolish fouls, fouling out in 15 minutes.

Though McMillan wants his centers to be “aggressive and physical and not worry so much about foul trouble … I don’t want stupid fouls. I don’t want crazy fouls.”

And, he added, “I don’t know if you can foul out in 15 minutes and play smart.”

Trivia question: McDyess was once part of a trade involving a current Sonic. Who was it?

That’s a fact: New York leads the NBA in free throw percentage at 83.8 percent. Clarence Weatherspoon and Howard Eisley are the team leaders at 94.1 percent, and three others in the regular rotation are at 90 percent or better. Throw out Dikembe Mutombo (28-for-42, 66.7 percent) and New York’s percentage is 86.3.

Seattle, meanwhile, is next to last at 70.4 percent. Only Golden State is lower at 68.7.

Where is he now? Remember forward Mike Sweetney of Georgetown, a player the Sonics considered drafting last spring? He ended up going No. 9 to New York, leaving Seattle to take Nick Collison at No. 12.

Sweetney has appeared in nine of New York’s 18 games, averaging 1.3 points and .7 rebounds in under five minutes a game. He is now on the injured list, going there Monday to make room for McDyess.

Trivia answer: McDyess was drafted in 1995 by the Los Angeles Clippers with the No. 2 overall pick. His rights were then traded to Denver along with guard Randy Woods for forward Rodney Rogers and the draft rights to guard Brent Barry, who was drafted No. 15 in 1995. Barry was traded to the Sonics in the summer of 1999.

Rich Myhre