Hooped Up

Tony Ronzone, the Pistons’ director of basketball operations and chief international scout, knows a guy who could rescue the New York Knicks .

“Jerry Colangelo,” Ronzone said.

Colangelo, who built the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks into championship-caliber franchises, is presently building Team USA back to gold medal status. Ronzone was hired by Colangelo as an assistant coach and scout for the Tournament of Americas championship last summer.

“I think that (cleaning up the mess that is the Knicks) is the kind of challenge Jerry loves,” Ronzone said.

“Colangelo has told friends that he would welcome the chance to come to the Garden, even more than going home to Chicago,” a report in the New York Daily News said. “Colangelo thinks that if he can turn around the laughingstock Knicks and build them into a championship team, it would be his crowning achievement.”