http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/story/458504p-385834c.html

Knick duo faces Brown-out



BY FRANK ISOLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER


Quentin Richardson


Jamal Crawford

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Imagine the courtroom drama that could have unfolded in Manhattan this past week had Jamal Crawford and Quentin Richardson been asked to testify before NBA commissioner David Stern in Larry Brown's arbitration hearing.
Under oath, Crawford would paint a very different picture of the head coach the Knicks are trying to portray as devious and borderline crazy. Crawford would admit that while in fact Brown was critical of him, the Knicks guard flourished under Brown and enjoyed the best season of his career. And Crawford would recall that Brown eventually called him "the most improved player I've ever coached."

Richardson's testimony would be more powerful since the veteran small forward would tell Stern that Brown was only trying to help the team by riding Stephon Marbury with tough love. And yes, Richardson would admit that police had to be called to the Knicks' training facility in Greenburgh last January because Richardson refused to leave the building until he could fight Marbury.
Neither Crawford nor Richardson was summoned to New York and put in the awkward position of having to defend his former coach in front of his current employer. Instead, a couple of Brown's pets now tip-toe around the issue of the Hall of Fame coach while trying to adhere to the organization's unofficial policy of "If You Have Nothing Bad To Say About Larry Keep It To Yourself."

"We're not supposed to talk about Larry," Richardson said yesterday.

Crawford was slightly more forthcoming despite the presence of two media relations officials who were monitoring his interview. "I can say he definitely helped me," Crawford said quietly. "That's been well documented."

Richardson and Crawford were strong Brown allies, and history suggests that the pair of "team-first" players will be the same for new coach Isiah Thomas. That's assuming they have a place on the team. With Brown gone, there is some uncertainty regarding their roles, even whether one of them will be on the opening-night roster.

With Thomas committed to playing Marbury and Steve Francis in the backcourt, Crawford will be competing for minutes with Richardson and Nate Robinson. Richardson's future in New York is murky at best, clouded all the more by his strained relationship with Marbury. Although Richardson can play shooting guard and small forward, there won't be enough minutes to go around at either position now that former Wizard Jared Jeffries is a Knick.

Over the summer, the Knicks nearly traded Richardson to Portland for Darius Miles. There has even been talk of including Richardson in a deal for Philadelphia's Chris Webber.

Richardson, however, is hard to move because of his contract and back issues. Crawford's contract is also a tough sell, although the Knicks came close to trading him to Orlando last February for Francis.

"You're not traded until you're gone," Richardson said following yesterday's practice at the College of Charleston. "There are a million rumors and some can be true. But my job is not to worry about them."

Thomas has strong feelings for both players he brought to New York. Richardson, like Thomas, grew up in Chicago while Crawford was Thomas' first major free agent signing as Knicks president. And even if Thomas didn't agree with Brown's coaching philosophy, he understands why Brown liked a couple of players who are willing to sacrifice for the good of the team.



NOT SO ROSY: Jalen Rose looks like the odd man out in the Knicks' rotation to everyone but Rose and Thomas. Despite the fact that Rose holds an expiring contract and Thomas has a history of trading players in the last year of their deals, Thomas predicted that Rose will finish the season as a Knick.

anyone else about ready to see Marbury go away?

Maybe Bonn posted them so I didnt read any... honestly I had no idea this happened.

Just so I dont repost any old news did anyone else want to fight Marbury?

I have on my list
Kurt Thomas
QRich

I thought everyone already knew about this. Richardson blamed Marbury for him having the worst statistical year of his career. Wait, I thought you liked it when players took responsibility for themselves and cared more about wins than stats? Or is it only when you can't spin it against Marbury.

OLD NEWS.

sorry guys... moving on to new topics

*** THIS JUST IN ***

Knicks still suck

Posted by fishmike:

anyone else about ready to see Marbury go away?

i've been ready for the past couple seasons.

I knew Q rich wanted a piece of him just like KT the year before but I had no idea they had to call the police to get rid of Q Rich. Since Qrich wasnt suspended for that it seems the coach/management wa basically saying they understand.

nixluva, you can defer blame from marbury all you want, but for any situation where you contend he wasn't a problem you'll also find he wasn't a solution. There are reasons he never sticks around long enough for players to heal and chemistry to form.

GMs can't afford divided locker rooms, teammates demanding trades, and coaches working their butts off to get him to raise his "good teammate" quotient up from 25%, and pulling their hair out trying to get him to do things anyway but his own.

Here's what I thought about Marbury from watching him before he was a Knick:
Great scorer
Great ball handler
Great at setting guys up for open looks
Could be selfish
Best player on some mediocre teams
Not easiest teammate to deal with
respectable defender, very strong

Here's what I learned about Marbury since he's been here
Great scorer, not clutch either shooting or at the FT line late in games
Great ball handler
Great at setting up teammates for open jumpers, gives them dirty looks if they dont knock them down
Is selfish
Whether its Stephs game or the fact that his teammates dont like him does little to nothing to elevate the game of guys he plays with
Bad teammate
plays zero defense, and scowls at teammates for not helping when he cant stay in front of whoever he is guarding

Posted by nixluva:

I could care less that QRich doesn't like Steph. He's like TT to me. Some guy who comes here and absolutely STINKS and then tries to lay that on Steph.

Let's just get something straight about Steph and his time here. He's NEVER been the reason we lost games. He may have had a high number of losing seasons, but that to me is more coincidental than a direct result of him being on the teams.

As soon as he came to the TWolves they started winning games. He helped them get to the playoffs and have the teams FIRST winning season.

When people talk about his career they forget to mention that he had 2 half seasons with diffferent teams. Those years are being counted against him justt as heavily as his full seasons with the same team. Most of the really bad stuff about Steph came from his years in NJ. That team stunk and it had record amounts of injuries. But somehow people want to blame Steph for that team stinking. Then after he's traded Nets draft RJ & Collins and finally get Kittles & Kmart healthy, replace Steph with the top Pure PG in the League and people want to compare that situation to what Steph had?

In PHX the team had a bad 1st year, but in his 2nd yr, they won 46 games and went to the playoffs, when no one expected that. COlangelo was so happy with Steph that he signed him to a multi year Extension in Oct. Then within 2 months Amare goes down and they change the Coach. Mike D'Antoni wanted to go in a different direction, so they traded Steph here. They had nothing but great things to say about Steph just 2 months before all of that went down. Why sign him to a multi yr big dollar extension if you don't think you can win with him?

I'm telling you that if LB had allowed Steph to help this team in the ways that he does best, we would've won a lot more games. He was leading the team just fine during the Streak and looked like he would've kept doing just that if not for the injuries. He was playing his style of ball and the team responded to him. Don't tell me that he can't help lead this team to wins, if he's allowed to.

Steph may not be the most lovable guy, but you can win with him if you have a decent team around him. Steph hasn't complained about the poor rosters we've had. Just look how much Kidd complained when they didn't keep Kittles and Kmart. He was ready to leave town. Steph has taken the abuse here and for the most part he's never said anything remotely like what Kidd said. I'm glad he's still here and I want him to be here as this team grows around him.

Your right, hes a great guy and has had really tough breaks in his career. He is misuderstood and had not had enough good players around him. THose losers that want to take his head off don't know anything!

We can win with him! He has been a success everywhere he has played!