Daily News from New York, New York • 204

BEE 01 RUBS It 1 1 1 1 i 1 Bit YAM Kn Bannister ffo I By FlUP BONDY Daily Sports Wriwr EN BANNISTER can live with ITT the unfamiliar food, live with the inferior competition, live ALTTD FAN BHJS turn a ui nnrri plugs ifili i Li I i i i i i i 1 i RATE .1 cox 15 Basra htm off 1 IWMMMM onsaoN AIL SEASON STEEIRASAL WMTESMLL ALL SEASQTJ STS1RAQAL iMima 1 1 i 5J5COO RS2 SOLVENT FUIO (Ml rmcricAncovBs LM2 km oars fca-i i 03 glSSSipeiiiss MLE TMMJ Tucsoar Ml STORES OPEN SUM. A.M. KAMUTDUI '0tBralMr(17SASg WE.MtlStiMl MixltlMSL S2 ctcm frjlil eta Brcafcg! (3 I EfE" IS i '4 4 twub to MtaMM HMICiuiii 111 WMIUbliOnnMi OMISxttM rSIJtnW twmrtwni MSEiCOMtO t)S)FHlM: with almost everything about Israel. Except the weather. The weather is too nice for The Animal.

"It's warm here when it's supposed to be cold," the former Knick center said from Tel Aviv. "That takes a lot of getting used to." Chop off a few degrees from the thermometer, throw some slush on the sidewalks, and Bannister is in Animal heaven. He is a star, averaging 27 points a game for the second-place Hapoel Holon club in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. He is a cult figure there, more popular than Micheal Ray Richardson. Animal shirts.

Animal buttons. Animal banners. The man who likes to eat hot dogs with mayonnaise for breakfast has broken kosher dietary laws in public. He is still a hero. "People have seen me play, they haven't seen Sugar play," Bannister said.

"They love what I can do." What Bannister can do, he says, is save the Knicks if they would just let him. Patrick Ewing says he's not a savior. Bannister says he is. Just like that: Bannister to the Knicks next season, the Knicks make the playoffs. The Knicks say they have too many seven-footers.

Bannister says they have the wrong kind. "Tell me, who's the enforcer on the Knicks now? Who's putting his body on the line under the boards?" The Animal asked. THERE IS nobody, of course. Bannister probably wouldn't make a difference, either. But keep listening.

"I follow the Knicks, I talk to the players," Bannister said. "It sounds like everybody just wants to be traded. "I was looking at the Knicks stats this year, and compared them to ours last year," Bannister said. "Ours were better. I don't know, maybe I'm talking about stats too much.

Maybe I've been with Hubie too long." Bannister, you may remember, was See. ANIMAL Page 77 Wd-OMWt. git flf HnX- MftSaulMniSM. BnfttwanAcaa 1W-Jfa LOranl ITm rtMCwotHBAnnM Mwtwruniwii.