A choked-up Dave Checketts gave a farewell speech to more than 150 Garden and Cablevision employees yesterday during an extravagant goodbye party held in the rotunda of the World’s Most Famous Arena.

It was indeed unusual that Cablevision saw fit to throw the ousted Checketts a farewell bash on his last day in the Garden offices considering his messy departure 19 days ago as Garden president.

Checketts, whose firing ended a 10-year run that began as the Knicks’ boss, spoke for 10 minutes and became very emotional. Checketts has been in the Garden offices the past two weeks finalizing his severance package that originally was supposed to take a couple of days.

However, a report yesterday stated Cablevision has tried to add language in the severance package preventing Checketts from seeking employment with YankeeNets – the new ownership trying to start its own network to compete against Cablevision. A source close to George Steinbrenner knows of no talks between Checketts and YankeeNets.

The Post reported two weeks ago Checketts was involved in contract negotiations the last two months with Cablevision CEO James Dolan. The Post reported Checketts had turned down a six-year deal because he didn’t think he could last that long. However, it is now believed part of a prospective new deal gave him less authority over the Knicks and Rangers.

It has become clear that Checketts’ successor as Garden president will also have less authority over the Knicks and Rangers than Checketts did, that the new hire will deal more with MSG Network, the Liberty and Radio City. It also has become clear that James Dolan is truly Checketts’ successor as far as the Knicks and Rangers are concerned.

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Larry Johnson is the latest Knick to be named as a customer of the mob-linked Gold Club strip joint during testimony at the Atlanta trial Wednesday.

The club owner Steven Kaplan is accused of having his exotic dancers provide sexual favors for star athletes and celebs.