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Phil Mushnick

EQUAL TIME

It’s an old joke:

The guy loses 20 straight football bets. He’s on such a losing streak even his bookie feels sorry for him, so much so that the book suggests that he do something to change his luck.

“Like what?”

“Try betting a hockey game,” says the bookie.

“Hockey?” says the loser, “What do I know about hockey?”

To that end, basketball, what does Lou Lamoriello know about basketball?

Imagine if in 1995, when the Dolan/Cablevision Gang seized control of the Knicks — the start of the team’s downward, costly, embarrassing run — Jim Dolan appointed Lou Lamoriello to run the Knicks, as opposed to firing the starter’s pistol signaling the Knicks’ 17-year run of bad ideas, bad-fits and those who could no longer suffer Dolan’s dysfunctional dominion.

N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg

TOP DOGS: Knicks owner James Dolan (left) has not enjoyed the same success at Devils GM Lou Lamoriello (right), sitting with Islanders owner Charles Wang at a Knicks game last season.

Since 1987 Lamoriello quietly, firmly and frugally — both his nature and his management style — has made the Devils into the most consistently successful, never-down-for-long pro franchise among our winter teams. The Devils, for the last 25 years — since Lamoriello entered — have indisputably been the region’s best fall-through-spring franchise.

NHL? What did he know about the NHL? Not much. On the day John McMullen named him president and general manager, his NHL experience in any position was zilch. His background was college hockey, at Providence, his hometown.

And now, an “off” season by the Devils, as in the song “Anything Goes,” is looked upon as something shocking.

Even if he didn’t know the difference between a point guard and a poodle, you think it would have taken Lamoriello 15 years to make the Knicks, a far more financially and territorially advantaged team than the Devils, a steady contender? You think it would have taken 10 years for the Knicks to win a playoff game?

Lamoriello, through blue eyes that penetrate like X-, Y- and Z-rays, is known as fully controlling, thoroughly and relentlessly practical, the Depression-era parental kind who would scold you for leaving the lights on after leaving the room.

When a marketing exec was hired by the Devils, his story goes, Lamoriello saw that he had brought a box of photos — photos of himself posing with sports stars — to hang on his office walls. Lamoriello gave him the ix-nay — originally interpreted as forbidden because it placed an individual ahead of the team.

In time, the exec changed his mind. He figured that, “Lou just didn’t want to pay to have the walls spackled and repainted after I was let go.”

How can you argue with that?

Put it this way: In 2005, based on scant evidence that Jerome James was better than ordinary, one can’t imagine, unlike the Knicks had, that Lamoriello would have agreed to sign him for $30 million.

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Lou Lamoriello, Knicks, the Devils, James Dolan, Lamoriello, Jim Dolan

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National treasure

Fordham’s Gaston gets Olympic invite from native Puerto Rico

FORDHAM forward Chris Gaston has received an invitation to try out for the Puerto Rican national team as it tries to qualify for this summer’s Olympics in London. Gaston, the Rams’ leading scorer and rebounder the past three seasons, received the invite last week and called the opportunity “tremendous.”

“It’s crazy,” Gaston told The Post’s Anthony Sulla-Heffinger. “My whole family is from Puerto Rico, they are really excited. My dad has always wanted me to play for Puerto Rico. I’m ecstatic, I cannot wait. I think its going to be a great opportunity, a great learning experience.”

Paul J. Bereswill

Chris Gaston

The former St. Anthony’s player will be joined by Florida’s Mike Rosario, who also played for legendary high school coach Bob Hurley at the New Jersey catholic school. Despite never playing with Rosario under Hurley, Gaston is looking forward to teaming with him in Puerto Rico.

“I was the year before Mike [Rosario], so we didn’t play together [at St. Anthony’s], but we’re familiar with each other from eighth grade. I’ve known him a long time,” Gaston said. “It’ll be good to play with Mike again.”

The tryouts take place on May 16, and Puerto Rico will take part in a qualifying tournament in early July.

Varsity’s Gelbs jumps to Rangers duty

If any broadcaster can relate to Rangers rookie Chris Krieder’s overnight transformation from on-campus hero to key NHL playoff figure, Steve Gelbs can.

Less than 24 hours before the Rangers’ decisive Game 7 faceoff with the Senators last week, Gelbs was preparing to go on air for his nightly 7 o’clock slot hosting MSG Varsity network’s “High School Sports Desk” when he got a call from producers at the MSG Network to see if he might be able to assist them on the Blueshirts’ radio broadcast the next night. Though the short turnaround time from covering local high school sports to calling Stanley Cup hockey might have been daunting to many broadcasters, it was a role Gelbs had been preparing for from the time he was a toddler — when his father, Scott, served as the team’s physical therapist, a role he held from 1988-95.

“This was an opportunity of a lifetime and a no-brainer for me,” said Gelbs, who grew up rooting for the Rangers and even hosted Rangers online podcasts for one year before joining MSG Varsity. “Everything happened so fast, and within 24 hours I was standing ice side covering one of the most important games in New York Rangers history. It was surreal.”

Gelbs wound up hosting both the pre- and postgame radio shows, as well as intermissions and rink-side interviews.

Guiliani son mayor may not have ‘Break’-out season

Andrew Giuliani still is shooting for his “Big Break.’’ The son of former mayor Rudy Giuliani and bad boy of Golf Channel’s reality show three years ago has just returned from spending the winter in Florida, where he has been grinding on the mini-tours.

Now 26, Andrew says the “Big Break’’ experience helped him win the prestigious Met Open in 2009. Since then, he has been working with famed Old Oaks swing guru Bobby Hein and says this might be the year he breaks out. He plans to hit the Monday qualifying circuit and has several Met Golf Association events on his calendar, including the 96th Met Open starting on Aug. 21 at Plainfield Country Club.

Ailing Jets fan gets help finding Match

When Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine heard through a mutual friend about the plight of Jets fan Michael Manganiello,

he rallied members of the team to help Manganiello. The result was the “Match for Michael” event last Tuesday in Eatontown, N.J.

Manganiello, a father of three, recently was diagnosed with Acute Myelofibrosis, a rare condition in which progressive scarring of the bone marrow impairs its ability to make blood cells. His only chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant.

Pettine organized the event to raise money and have people register to be a donor through a cheek swab. Jets players Mark Sanchez, Sione Pouha and Aaron Maybin as well as coach Rex Ryan were there. They signed autographs and held an auction. The event raised more than $60,000 and more than 300 people registered with the National Marrow Donor Program through the cheek swab.

“It was a no-brainer to step in and help,” Pettine said. “We don’t get a lot of opportunities to do something like this, when you have a chance to have an impact on a life.”

Visit matchformichael.com to donate.

Chris Gaston, Puerto Rico, Mike Rosario, Steve Gelbs, MSG Varsity, Mike Pettine, Gaston, Rangers, Gelbs, Anthony Sulla-Heffinger, Plainfield Country Club.Ailing Jets

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Mike Vaccaro
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Amar’e Stoudemire is recruiting you. He is working you. He is hustling you. Stoudemire is as aware as any athlete we’ve had around here, he enjoys the almost universal praise he’s received from the moment he signed his name to the bottom of his Knicks contract. Mostly, he earned the praise. Mostly, he was a worthy recipient of the cheers of Knicks fans starving for a savior.

So you better believe he understands where he sits with so many of you now. He knows the disdain with which his name has been thrown around, has probably seen a few of the Internet creations — some of which, you have to admit, are hysterical — that have lampooned his first-round TKO at the hands of an American Airlines Arena fire extinguisher.

Twitter/Amar’e Stoudemire

LIFE’S A STITCH: Amar’e Stoudemire posted this picture of his stitched up hand on his Twitter account yesterday, showing the results of his surgery after hitting the case of a fire extinguisher after a loss in Miami.

He knows there’s anger out there.

And so this is his pitch to win you back: to defy medical odds and play — or, at the least, to make it seem as if he might play — when the Knicks-Heat series resumes — and likely concludes — tomorrow at Madison Square Garden.

“With this type of injury, playing [tomorrow] would be out of the question for most people,” Stoudemire said yesterday, after spending a couple of hours running drills while the rest of the Knicks were practicing. “I feel I’m blessed. I heal fast. I persevere through a lot of injuries.”

Well, that’s one way to spin it.

It’s the wrong way, of course.

Stoudemire was nice enough a few hours later to tweet a photograph of his hand, and it wasn’t an image for the queasy. By my count there were 12 stitches forming an arc closing the wound, and if you weren’t sure it was actually a human hand you might have looked for Bud Selig’s signature because it looked like it could have been something hit into the Citi Field stands during batting practice yesterday.

There’s little question this would be a two-week injury, minimum, during the regular season, even if Stoudemire’s healing powers included a dip in the waters of Lourdes. But the Knicks barely have two days left in the season let alone two weeks. So this is Stoudemire trying to channel Willis Reed, with the notable exception that Reed pushed himself to play with the Knicks one victory shy of a championship, not 16.

Also, Walt Frazier was standing next to Bradley, DeBusschere and Barnett in the starting lineup that night 41 years and 362 days ago, not sitting next to Mike Breen and Spiro Dedes. All due respect to Clyde, but he was more useful to the Knicks’ hopes 41 years and 362 days ago.

“It’s definitely not 100 percent,” Stoudemire said. “I’m still pretty sore at times. I’m a team player. We have an opportunity where we have to try to get a win.”

That sounds great. And Stoudemire, always a physical marvel, looked fine as he ran full court alongside Jeremy Lin and Knicks assistant Kenny Atkinson yesterday. But this is a guy who looked completely overmatched in Games 1 and 2 with two functioning hands; to take on that team, that front line, one-handed? Does he really think that’s going to help the team or, more to the point, his fractured relationship with New York City?

You know what would be more helpful to that end? Someone with smarts enough to write a statement for Stoudemire that said something along the lines of: “I know people are frustrated with me, and I’m frustrated with myself. I needed to be smarter than this, and I’m paying a high price now but I’ve learned from it. And when I’m healthy, I’ll prove that and I’ll earn back your trust.”

Instead, for a second straight practice, Stoudemire tried to spin this as some kind of ill-fated accident where nobody — least of all himself — deserved blame.

“I feel great that I’m back, being able to get back on the basketball court and still run and play and use my hand, off an incident that wasn’t on purpose, just a reaction out of losing a game.”

He’s wrong. Hitting the glass was very much on purpose; getting cut was the accident. His fault. HIS fault. No amount of wishing and wanting will get Stoudemire’s hand healthy faster; accountability could restore his reputation in a timely manner. That’s where he should be. Because if he plays as you would imagine a one-handed man would against the Miami Heat?

That won’t improve anyone’s mood. You can count on that.

michael.vaccaro@nypost.com

Knicks, Stoudemire, Mike VaccaroFollow Mike

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American Eagle Outfitters climbed the most since 2000 after reporting preliminary first-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates as the Pittsburgh-based apparel chain was able to sell more merchandise at full price.

Shares rose 16.8 percent to close at $20.90 for the biggest increase since Aug. 3, 2000.

The company is scheduled to report full first-quarter results on May 23.

American Eagle Outfitters, apparel chain

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Mike Vaccaro
Follow Mike on Twitter

WASHINGTON – Hockey fans don’t need much in the way of reference points; surnames will do just fine. There isn’t a Rangers fan who was alive on the evening of May 27, 1994, who needs anything other than the word “Matteau” to summon time, place, who they were with, what they were drinking, what they were screaming.

Go back a few years. If you’re old enough to remember the night of April 29, 1971, then all you need is the word “Stemkowski,” and you know: where, when, with who. Forty-one years later there are still Rangers fans who can recite, as if it were part of the Baltimore Catechism, the details of that goal, 1:29 into the third overtime, salvaging Game 6 against the Chicago BlackHawks.

NHLI via Getty Images

TAKE THAT! Rangers captain Ryan Callahan slams into Washington’s John Carlson during the Blueshirts’ 2-1, triple-overtime Game 3 win last night in Washington.

Now, onto that shelf, we place Marian Gaborik.

Now, into the Rangers’ pantheon of forever moments, we add another architect, we add another moment, we add this goal at 12:15 this morning after 114 minutes and 41 seconds of tortured, torturous, terrific hockey, a war of attrition you started to think might take us all the way to Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. face-off for Game 4.

“It’s a game of wills,” Gaborik would say after scoring his first goal since Game 1 against the Senators, after willing a puck past Braden Holtby and delivering a 2-1, triple-overtime victory for the Rangers and a 2-1 advantage in these best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Yes. A game of wills. And a game of Gatorade, chugged by the gallon by all 40 players to keep from passing out, and a game of bananas, scarfed in bunches by both sides, the potassium keeping legs from morphing to dust after night became morning, after both teams squandered splendid opportunity after splendid opportunity by making one gut-check stop after another.

“Playoff hockey,” Brian Boyle said, looking like he was ready for a good 14- or 15-hour nap. “It’s what you dream about as a kid, right? And then it was like none of us wanted the dream to end, like we would be out there forever.”

One of the reasons it took so long was because Boyle accidentally got in the way of a Brandon Prust shot in the second overtime, Prust staring at a goal that was absolutely wide open until Boyle’s bottom got in the way.

“Yeah,” Boyle said sheepishely. “I told him I’m sorry.”

So they played on, and they played ferociously, each shift a personal test of endurance for everyone on the ice, every period a wicked examination of the soul. The teams had exchanged goals in the second period and gone empty in periods 1, 3, 4 and 5. It was excruciating. It was exhilarating. It was exasperating. And you couldn’t take your eyes off it. Could you? Even when you heard Jared Weaver was tossing a no-no out in California; did you dare take your eye off the screen?

“I felt all along that the longer the game went, the better off we’d be,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said, and he mentioned how all the way back in training camp – which started early for the Rangers, remember, thanks to that early trip to Stockholm – he could see the strain of tenacity that ran through the roster top to bottom.

“It’s simple,” he said. “It’s about just not giving in.”

None of them did. Not the forwards, who looked like they could barely stand up yet kept dropping to the ice a hundred minutes into the game to take pucks to the ribs, shoulders and thighs. Not the blue-liners, who kept frustrating the onrushing Capitals. Certainly not the magnificent King, Henrik Lundqvist, who set aside 45 of 46 shots.

And not Gaborik, around whose playoff performances so many hands had been wrung, so many heads scratched. Of course it was Gaborik who would end this, who would send thousands of fans scurrying for the Metro before it closed at 1 a.m., who would justify his coach and his teammates’ faith and their patience.

“Everybody contributed,” he said after he’d sent everyone home. “Everybody left everything out there.”

Same as he did. And for his troubles, Marian Gaborik – like Stephane Matteau and Pete Stemkowski before him – will never have to buy another drink in Manhattan for as long as he lives.

michael.vaccaro@nypost.com

Brian Boyle, Rangers, Marian Gaborik, Rangers, Mike VaccaroFollow Mike, Brandon Prust, Baltimore Catechism

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Dolby Laboratories Inc. acquired naming rights to the theater that hosts the Oscars.

CIM Group, the owner of the theater, reached 20-year deals with Dolby, and with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to keep the ceremony at the location it’s occupied since 2002, according to a statement.

Dolby Laboratories Inc., the Academy of Motion Picture Arts

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Ben Vallimarescu became a celebrity for a week at Dalton. He couldn’t avoid attention after being named to the NYPost.com poll asking who is the city’s best boys lacrosse player.

The senior midfielder was told by teammates his name was on the list the day after it was posted. Later that night many of his friends asked people to vote for him on Facebook. The next day at a school assembly team captain Jeremy Allen announced to the whole school that everyone should cast a vote for Vallimarescu.

“Him making the announcement to the whole school was pretty cool with everyone looking at me,” he said. “It was pretty exciting. The next day a couple of teachers were asking me about it.”

Steve Horowitz

Dalton's Ben Vallimarescu has scored 31 goals this seeason.

Their hard work and efforts paid off. Vallimarescu won by receiving 33,481 or 34.32 percent of the 97,551 votes cast in the week-long poll. Hugo Francis of Poly Prep was second with 16,508 votes and New Dorp’s Chris Fiore third with 14,878. Vallimarescu said he was happy just to be named in the group, among players he has played with and against. He believes it means a lot for the up-and-coming program to have a player nominated.

“It means a lot,” he said. “I’m honored people would vote for me for something like that. I’ve spent a lot long time playing lacrosse. I started when I was little.”

Vallimarescu began playing the sport with Doc’s Lacrosse, a non-profit youth lacrosse league based in Manhattan, he competed in middle school and is now one of the city’s most dangerous scorers. He had some big shoes to help fill when leading scorer Mark Philipps graduated. Vallimarescu and his teammates have raised their game. He’s scored 31 goals and dished out eight assists.

“I knew that I would have to step in in his absence because he was such a key part of the team,” he said. … “I think this year my teammates have done a great job and we have all chipped in.”

Dalton, ranked No. 6 in the city by The Post, is off to a 3-5 start in Ivy League play, looking to build off of last year’s successful campaign. One of those wins was a season-opening defeat of Riverdale where Vallimarescu scored five times. The Tigers also have a one-goal loss to Poly Prep.

“We feel like we can beat anyone in the league,” Vallimarescu said. “We feel like if we play well at the right time we can make a run at the playoffs.”

jstaszewski@nypost.com

Ben Vallimarescu, Hugo Francis of Poly Prep, Jeremy Allen, Vallimarescu, Chris Fiore, boys lacrosse

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley’s executive compensation packages received endorsements from ISS Proxy Services USA, the firm whose negative recommendation helped sink a similar plan at Citigroup Inc.

JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley displayed “reasonable alignment” between shareholder returns and pay for Jamie Dimon and James Gorman, ISS analysts wrote.

Morgan Stanley, ISS Proxy Services USA, JPMorgan Chase , Jamie Dimon, Citigroup Inc., James Gorman, executive compensation packages, shareholder returns, ISS

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Rocky Iannacone’s college decision was about more than him.

The Xaverian lineman is already giving back to young kids by coaching at the Warriors Football Club in Pelham Bay and wants to make a future of teaching phys ed and coaching football. Iannacone felt Wagner College gave him the best combination of high-level football and an excellent education to be prepared for his future.

“It’s an honor,” he said. “Not only will I get a great education at Wagner, but I can also follow my dream of playing football. Wagner is a wonderful choice I think.”

Iannacone signed a National Letter of Intent to attend the Northeast-10 school at Xaverian Friday. He will receive a partial athletic and academic scholarship and chose Wagner over Sacred Heart and Maritime. The Seahawks went 4-7 under head coach Walt Hameline last season.

“It’s going to a kid who couldn’t deserve it more,” Xaverian coach Joe DeSiena said.

The coach said Iannacone wanted to be a Football Championship Subdivision or Division II player no matter what the scholarship money. He heeded his coach’s advice of experiencing the program first hand by going to five spring practices. It left Iannacone leaving with a positive vibe. He is expected to play a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker spot.

“I just love the atmosphere at Wagner,” he said. “The coaches made me feel like I never left home.”

The 6-foot, 200-pound Iannacone will again be going to school away from home. The Bronx native used to wake up at 5 a.m. every morning to get to Xaverian on time for school and is looking forward to dorming. Iannacone was never about making excuses and saw his hard work turn himself into one of the CHSFL’s top lineman. He had 10 sack and was an All-City second team defense selection by The Post.

“Everyone is happy that it happened to a guy who is not only a talented player, but a guy who made himself a real successful varsity football player,” DeSiena said. “He plays a position where he routinely gives up 40, 50 pounds against the guy’s he playing against.”

Iannacone helped lead Xaverian to one of the best seasons in program history. The Clippers went 7-3 and earned a berth in the CHSFL Class AAA title game. He was a key cog on defense, one of the league’s best and tied for second in fewest points allowed. Iannacone’s most memorable moment was a 98-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown in a 24-0 win over Iona Prep.

He brings great memories to Wagner, but said he is looking forward to the next chapter.

“My time at Xaverian was probably one of the best experiences of my life,” Iannacone said. … “Just to be representing Xaverian is another honor for me and the football program.”

jstaszewski@nypost.com

Rocky Iannacone, Wagner College, Iannacone, Warriors Football Club, Xaverian, National Letter of Intent, coaching football, Walt Hameline

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Kevin Kernan
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Eventually, the Yankees’ starting pitching will run this team smack into a brick wall.

It may not happen until late in the season. It may not happen until October, but the Yankees must clean up their rotation — and it’s going to take more than the return of Andy Pettitte.

Once again, the bats saved a starting pitcher as the Yankees twice came from behind to beat the Tigers, 7-6 last night at Yankee Stadium, when the ageless Derek Jeter scored on a passed ball for the walk-off win.

The Yankees managed to hit two home runs against Detroit ace Justin Verlander, who had not given up a home run all season. One was hit by Alex Rodriguez in the fourth, the other by Russell Martin in the fifth. Verlander has never won at the new Yankee Stadium.