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Knight
Posts: 22775
Alba Posts: 2
Joined: 7/21/2005
Member: #968
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By Jon Heyman
December 16, 2005
Everybody's feeling down at 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue right now. It's not just Larry Brown who's down. It's anyone associated with the Knicks, from the stat keepers to the camera people, the front-office folks to the concessionaires, the p.a. guys to the p.r. guys, the players to the purveyors (that one's with a nod to Clyde).
Everyone's so down, they're thinking of changing the name from The Garden to The Doldrums.
The way I see it, there are only two ways to lift holiday spirits. One is to acquire a savior.
The other is to get rid of the last savior.
Yes, the time has come to move Stephon Marbury, the Maestro of Mope, on out of here.
Brown didn't have to spell it out yet again in yesterday's soliloquy, but the Knicks are in the beginning stages of rebuilding. The last thing an embryonic team needs is a pseudo-star who cares most about his scoring average and least about everyone else. As long as Marbury and his vast collection of headgear towels are here, the face of the franchise is forever a frown.
The Knicks won't win a thing as long as Marbury is the centerpiece, and that's all he's ever wanted to be. That was clear from his NBA origins when he chafed at playing second fiddle to all-time talent Kevin Garnett, and it's just as clear today, when he complains about his new role to distribute. Sure he's a hog, but at least he knows it.
Marbury has a lot better chance of spoiling the team's youth program than enhancing it, like 100 times better. Whatever you think of Isiah Thomas' moves so far, three of Isiah's draft choices look promising, while the fourth, Channing Frye, already is productive. But kids are impressionable. What kind of impression does Marbury make when he trudges to the scorer's table, towel over head, as if he's headed for death row.
He sets a crummy example before he steps on the court, then worsens things with his uniquely sad-sack, selfish style of play. He makes $19 million and acts as if it's torture all the way. What sort of example does this set?
He gets upset when he isn't getting his minutes and points, yet clams up when the team isn't getting it done. Barely two weeks into the season, he signaled that he'd had it with Brown's time-tested system. What kind of example does that set?
Phil Jackson went back to L.A. for the sun and fun, but also to stay away from the real "uncoachable" player, which is Marbury, not Kobe Bryant. As Jackson's good friend and biographer Charley Rosen presciently remarked back then to Newsday, "The only way Marbury ever improved a team is to leave it."
Brown's own problems with Marbury at the 2004 Olympics in Athens were well chronicled. But suffice to say, there's no reason to think Brown likes Marbury any more on American soil. Brown shows what he thinks by frequently keeping Marbury and his terrycloth headgear benched during crunch time, and also by recently remarking that they "don't have a good head on the floor," a direct head slap at Marbury.
One year Marbury's telling us he's "the best" point guard in the league, the next he's declaring that he doesn't want to be a point guard. He came home billed as "the All-Star point guard" the Knicks haven't had since Walt Frazier. Now he is neither All-Star nor point guard.
Statistically, Marbury's second-closest comparable going into the year he became a Knick, according to Basketball-Reference.com, was, you guessed it, Isiah Thomas. Any other way, they are nothing alike. For instance, we've seen Zeke's smile.
Thomas politely declined to comment through a spokesperson (as opposed to Marbury, who simply declined).
Once Isiah clears the hurdle of admitting his mistake, there's no good reason not to do whatever it takes to get Marbury out of town. Seeing the diminishing productivity and $73 million left on his contract, you'd think it's impossible to be rid of him. Maybe so, but all sorts of bums and bad contracts are traded.
Just don't expect much in return. Marbury was traded in past lives for the likes of Ray Allen and Jason Kidd. But last time, when Isiah executed what was hailed as a steal in these parts (sorry about that), about all he had to surrender was Howard and some Eisley brothers - no-names, draft choices and international projects that didn't pan out.
That's OK. Beggars can't be choosers. Give us your overpriced, your infirm, your malcontents. Whatever, anything to get the highest-paid towel man out of town.
What a downer
Stephon Marbury's scoring average and assists are down this season compared to his career averages:
2005-06 Career Diff.
Points 17.9 20.5 -2.6
Rebounds 3.7 3.1 + 0.6
Assists 6.6 8.2 - 1.6
Turnovers 2.9 3.2 - 0.3
Steals 1.15 1.28 - 0.13
FG Pct. .438 .435 +.003
3-Pt. Pct. .231 .319 -.088
FT Pct. .727 .789 -.062
"He only went to Georgia Tech for one year, and that's an engineering school." -LB
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12/16/2005 12:49 PM
