"Yeah, I was pretty aware of it," the Knicks coach said, chuckling. "He made no bones about wanting to coach. And he has a great opportunity. He has a good team and a good city. You have to be lucky and he was. It's good."

Nevertheless, D'Antoni said he was as surprised as anyone when the Bulls' coach search moved from him to Doug Collins to a coaching rookie.

"I think everybody was shocked. It wasn't really on the horizon," D'Antoni said. "But hey, he's a good Basketball mind."

D'Antoni also answered questions about Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf's claim that D'Antoni misled the Bulls in somewhat rude fashion when he accepted the Knicks job without calling the Bulls back.

"I can understand it," D'Antoni said. "It was a tough situation for him. I didn't do anything on purpose."

Ex-Bull report: Chris Duhon is third in the league in minutes and Eddy Curry hasn't played all season with a bruised knee.

"I loved it in Chicago," Duhon said. "It was just one of those things where we had to go our separate ways. But I was very thankful to be in the city, to play for this organization."

D'Antoni insists Curry can help if he's in shape.

"He'll be great in the system," D'Antoni said. "He's faster than a lot of guys I've coached."

Layups: Vice President-elect Joe Biden sat in a luxury suite with David Axelrod, a former Tribune reporter and now senior adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. ... Larry Hughes arrived past the 6 p.m. reporting time and will be fined.