Ex-Gov. David Paterson, in town today for the unveiling of the black history month exhibit at the Capitol, was in his usual self-deprecating form this morning, joking with reporters that his gubernatorial portrait might be a photo from a tabloid newspaper.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Paterson, along with former Comptroller Carl McCall took a tour of the newly renovated Hall of Governors on the second floor, where portraits of nearly every former governor hangs (notable absences include Eliot Spitzer and Cuomo’s father Mario).

Paterson, who brought down the house with a Classsic Paterson speech which we’ll post a little later, referenced his tumultuous time in office that made for a lot of tabloid fodder.

“The governor asked me about that and I guess I have to get around to putting together the resources to create a portrait,” Paterson said. “I thought they could take an old picture from one of the tabloid newspapers and put that up.”

Paterson said he missed staying at the Executive Mansion where “the people were wonderful to us.” What does he miss least? “I won’t say,” he dead panned.

Paterson, now a radio show host on WROW, said he expects to see the kind of “tension” that Cuomo has described in recent days when describing his relationship with the Legislature.

“There’s always going to be tension because we’re in the midst of a great recession and we’ve had to live under austerity that’s very difficult. But my view is Governor Cuomo already passed most of the budget even before the year started,” Paterson said.

Also a sports nut who occaisionally calls into WFAN as “David from Harlem,” Paterson has a case of Linsanity, and praised the out-nowhere Knicks phenom

I met Jeremy Lin here in Albany in the fall of 2007. Albany played Harvard and I met some of the players after. I didn’t realize at first – I watched the game between the Knicks and the Nets – until the end the game that this was the guy I saw here years ago.”

“All of those sports movies, all of those movies about conquering what seems to be the inconquerable, I’ll bet no one thought to make a movie about what we’ve seen in the last week and a half. It’s stimulating, it’s inspiring, they may be imaginary heroes, but it’s still exciting.

UPDATE: As per a tweet from Gannett’s Jon Campbell, the last time Harvard played Albany was 2005, and Lin wasn’t on the team. CapTon producer Michael Johnson notes that Harvard plays a number of NY Ivy League teams – including Columbia and Cornell – every year, and so perhaps Paterson actually met Lin at some other game and got confused.

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