Brown sings Marbury's praises
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
BY DAVID WALDSTEIN
Star-Ledger Staff

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Strange things are going on with the Knicks now. In stark contrast to the war of words and disparaging comments that flowed back and forth between Larry Brown and Stephon Marbury last week, now we have effusive praise.

And April Fools' Day is still almost two weeks away.

Brown watched the tape of Sunday's loss to the Heat yesterday, and came to the conclusion that Marbury did all that was asked of him, despite scoring only 12 points.

"Marbury was great," Brown said. "I watched the film. You can't guard better than he guarded. He played (33) minutes. That's the way we're going to go."

It actually seemed as if Brown was being sincere, and trying to further defuse the simmering verbal confrontation between the two. Of course, the way these two operate, it may last only until tonight's game against the Raptors.

Marbury was not available to reporters yesterday to comment on Brown's stunning and rare tribute.

But, while Marbury is temporarily back in favor, Steve Francis isn't. Francis continues to struggle. He played 30 minutes Sunday and scored nine points, but Brown said yesterday that as soon as Quentin Richardson returns from his thumb injury -- possibly tonight -- Francis will lose his starting job.

Brown said he's of the coaching school that players don't lose their starting jobs because of injury, but he also said Richardson was deserving of a starting role because of how he has conformed to Brown's style of play.

When asked why he doesn't just play Francis and Marbury together to see how it works, Brown said it wasn't a priority -- adding fuel to the notion that the Knicks don't intend to have both of them on the roster next season. He indicated he has Richardson in his long-term plans.

"I don't know," he said. "Quentin's been playing pretty (darn) good. Quentin's 25 years old. He's played pretty good. He's done the things I've asked of our (players). He's trying to defend; he's gotten better."

Brown said it would send a bad message if he didn't play Richardson after he's done everything the coach has asked.

"I've been telling guys, 'If you defend and share the ball, you'll play,'" Brown said. "That's the way we're going to have to reward guys, because we're not fighting for the playoffs."

Note: Malik Rose, who twisted his right ankle in Sunday's loss to the Heat, was scheduled to have an MRI yesterday to determine the extent of the damage. Brown said if Rose can't play tonight, then he might go back to Maurice Taylor for the first time in eight games, and the first time since Taylor ripped Brown's treatment of him.

Taylor said on March 7 that when Brown had a PR official notify him he was on the inactive list, instead of telling him himself, it was a "slap in the face." Since then Brown has praised Taylor's hard work in practice.

Berman is trying to keep the story line alive.