NEW YORK -- The NBA just took one giant step forward for madness.

There isn't enough negligence insurance available to cover the damage done Friday night to the league's credibility, documented in prime time, no less, by ESPN.

Or to repay the Pistons for their one-point loss to the Timberwolves, in which Rasheed Wallace and Mike James were ordered to sit for the second half, thus sanctioning the Pacers and Nets to gain a game on them in the standings.

The root of the preposterous situation evidently has everything to do with league lawyers not having the proper paperwork pertaining to the plethora of players in the three-team trade completed 34 hours before Friday's games.

From what I'm told, the missing red tape is called "the agent certification papers."

Some of the other parties had failed to turn in the necessary material (without it, everyone was barred from suiting up), but the Pistons were the ones who really got stiffed; the Celtics weren't scheduled to play, while Bob Sura and Zeljko Rebraca probably wouldn't have been enough to make up the difference in the Hawks' 33-point loss to the Heat.

Due to abject incompetence the Pistons were penalized, er, pulverized.

On top of that they weren't alerted until halftime the league had changed its logo from Jerry West to Jerry Lewis.

Does David Stern mean to tell us roughly 34 hours isn't enough time to complete formalities that were put in place a half-century ago?

Especially when you're dealing with the trading deadline!

The league almost certainly knew as early as a week ago Wednesday exactly which players were involved and should have been prepared to place its rules and regulations into rapid motion!

You would think a few thousand previous trades might be enough to iron out the wrinkles?

Come on, there was so much spare time after the trade went down that Rasheed was able to get the "w" out of his first name and out of his system; at the pre-game press conference the reformed Jail Blazer acted downright coherent and sounded utterly intelligent.

Come on, did Shawn Kemp once ever have a paperwork problem when filling specimen jars or filling out birth certificates?

There are only two logical explanations for this royal screw-up: Either the league couldn't control itself from ejecting Wallace, or the guilty parties must have rolled the papers and smoked them. Apparently somebody was smoking something.

Try not to think about it, but if the league was in charge of the legal paperwork for Jayson Williams and Kobe Bryant they would already be free on technicalities.

By obtaining Tim Thomas, the Knicks certainly got more athletic at small forward and Stephon Marbury surely has an improved running mate/finisher on the fast break.

The Bucks' two-fold profit is even more tangible: Over the last few weeks Desmond Mason clearly had beaten out Thomas for fourth quarter crunch time minutes; Thomas' exodus unclogs the arteries of resentment that might have been forming.

Meanwhile, Keith Van Horn's 3-point presence at power forward spreads out the defense even wider, thus allowing T.J. Ford that much more room to infiltrate and kick.

As far as Thomas' imprudent oratory that Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson and Sam Cassell failed to distinguish themselves in the 2001 playoffs, he's loud wrong!

I covered that entire series and all three came up big, except for a Game 5-missed open springer by Big Dog for the win.

If not for Scott Williams' flagrant foul (and consequent suspension) on Allen Iverson in Game 6, the Bucks, I believe to this day, would have eliminated the 76ers for the right to be crushed by the Lakers in The Finals that year.

Why is everyone on Kobe's case about opting out and testing the free agent market?

Jason Kidd went to two straight NBA Finals and tested the market . . . What stopped the Sixers from exchanging Eric Snow for Juwan Howard, you ask?

The idea was to reroute Howard to the T-Wolves for Michael Olowokandi.

Kevin McHale felt that was unfair; the best he would do was Ervin Johnson.

Yeah, right!

I definitely understand why superstars (especially local heroes) get appointed to such powerful positions.

For the life of me, I just can't understand how they keep them. Particularly when you take into account McHale signed Johnson to a two-year guarantee of more than $9 million.

Tell me you wouldn't be mortified to discover another team was willing to give Ervin more than the veteran minimum.

Jayson Williams, Part II: Is that a crucifix he's wearing on his lapel in court each day?

I was under the impression you don't find God until you're actually in jail.