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Nalod
Posts: 72133
Alba Posts: 155
Joined: 12/24/2003
Member: #508
USA
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I like the young guys, I even think Francis could be a nice surprise, but there is this one element that nags at me..............
And when I think its going to be different this year I lose faith.
Isiah could get buried by Steph
Ken Berger
NBA
October 4, 2006
CHARLESTON, S.C.
As the first sounds of basketballs bouncing and sneakers squeaking resonated in the Knicks' little practice oasis, a quaint gym on the College of Charleston campus, it seemed pretty clear yesterday what has to happen for Isiah Thomas to keep his job.
The Hall-of-Fame point guard turned coach on the hot seat needs to look no further than the bald-headed enigma wearing No. 3 and $15 sneakers for the clue to achieving the "significant improvement" he is under orders to attain.
Given that the aforementioned point guard is Stephon Marbury, this fact no doubt intrigues Thomas, who after all, brought him to the Knicks in the first place.
But it also should worry him, because now Thomas has to do what so many before him couldn't.
Now he has to coach him.
Do not count Bobby Cremins among the frustrated coaches in Marbury's wake, but let's be honest: Cremins had Marbury for only one season at Georgia Tech, good for a Sweet 16 appearance before Marbury went off to the NBA.
But there was Cremins holding court yesterday, in the gym where he now coaches his college team, explaining how Marbury should be coached.
"You gotta let him play," Cremins said, repeating it twice more before adding, "And you gotta to teach him. Steph's a tough kid. You can't take away his game. You gotta let him go ... You gotta let him do his thing."
After producing the worst statistical averages of his career on a team that lost a franchise-record 59 games, Marbury believes it will be different under Thomas. He mentioned how Cremins and Flip Saunders are the only coaches he's had since high school who let him "do his thing." Will Thomas?
"Definitely," he said, "It'll be like that." Why?
"Because I know what he wants," Marbury said.
He couldn't resist taking another shot at Larry Brown, who at that very moment was in New York trying to get $53.5 million more of Cablevision's money.
"It's more free flowing and free going," Marbury said of Thomas' first practice. "You don't have somebody who couldn't handle the ball telling you, 'Don't do this, don't do that.'"
Apparently, in their tumultuous year together, Brown never got around to telling Marbury that he was the ABA's career assists leader ... as a point guard.
Anyway, in trying to appease Brown, Marbury said: "I allowed myself to look like a person who never played basketball at this level before ... I should've been playing like I normally play, and for why I get paid the money that I get paid."
For the record, Thomas hasn't actually told Marbury what he wants, and doesn't have to, according to Marbury. "He knows how I play," he said.
Say what you want about Thomas, but he is not naive. He understands that a team is as good as its point guard, or as good as its best player, and that Marbury is both for the Knicks.
It's easy for Marbury's detractors to point out that he hasn't won a playoff series, and to trumpet the success of all the teams he's left. Despite all that, I am willing to give Marbury another chance. But I have the luxury of choosing. Thomas does not.
He is stuck with Marbury, by his own doing. And if he wants to be coaching the Knicks after the All-Star break, Thomas has to somehow transform Marbury into the player he has yet to prove that he is.
"I don't think it's all predicated on how I play," Marbury said.
And with that, on Day 1, Marbury pointed the finger - not at a teammate or coach, but at the problem itself. The one person who holds the fate of the Knicks and their coach in his hands doesn't seem to realize it.
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.
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10/4/2006 9:12 AM
