The tiff that never sleeps
March 21, 2006

Dave D'Alessandro



There is a story often repeated around the Meadowlands that dates back to a night in 2000-01. It's about Stephon Marbury and his teammates leaving the court after getting trampled (a common event in those days), when they were suddenly met by the point guard's mom, the redoubtable Mabel. And Mom, in a very loud voice, had some advice for her son: "Don't worry, Stephon, it's not your fault," she said. "It's all these other lousy players."

Upon which a veteran Nets teammate observed, "Now you know why he is how he is." You may no longer care about the most recent follies involving Marbury and Knicks coach Larry Brown -- wow, I can feel you turning the page already -- but in New York, fans were engrossed by this two-man eye poke for five monotonous but somehow entertaining days.

Admittedly, it wasn't very different from every other incident involving Marbury and a coach, but just in case you need a review, it went like this:

Saturday. Marbury states that he has to get "back to playing like Stephon Marbury, aka Starbury. I've been some other dude this year." All over the nation, self-absorbed clods who refer to themselves in the third person break out in applause.

Monday. Marbury elaborates by saying Brown doesn't give him enough freedom and "that is a problem." Brown, with surprising mordancy, cites 15 examples of why Marbury should be put on a shorter leash.

Tuesday. Brown pulls out his resume and speaks of his "credibility." He also threatens to slash Marbury's playing time if he doesn't defend better and announces he won't be railroaded out of town by (paraphrasing here) a recalcitrant punk. The coach's agent, now confident Brown won't walk away from a deal that has four years and $40 million remaining, orders another Bentley.

Wednesday. Steph's serve. He says Brown's decision to flaunt his track record "sounds like a whole lot of insecurity going on." He also vows to escalate the dialogue if the coach does the same because "my mother taught me that if someone hits you, you hit them back." No comment from Mabel on her son's next course of action after he is benched for the last 23 minutes against Atlanta that night.

Thursday. On instructions from owner Jim Dolan, who rarely has anything to say worth heeding, Larry and Steph agree to shaddap.

Seriously, don't you wish you had a 19-45 team in your town sometimes?

This was inevitable, of course. For much of his pro life, Marbury was coached by freedom advocates -- from Flip Saunders to Don Casey to Frank Johnson to Lenny Wilkens. The last guy whose ego mirrored his own was the overmatched John Calipari, whom Marbury hated so much he once told the Nets' owner he wouldn't play for Calipari. No matter: The Nets were on their way to a 3-17 start that year, and Calipari was about to be tossed under the bus. Marbury hasn't changed much since.

He has the self-absorbency of a sweat sock and takes little notice of anything else, unless it gets in his way. He is 6-2 and 200 pounds of disassociated anger, and he certainly isn't going to acknowledge that Brown knows what he's talking about, no matter how much advice he has solicited from Chauncey Billups.

You'd think after reviewing Brown's resume, a player's lesson would be "Don't mess with this guy." But Marbury's nature is not to hit the brakes when the yellow light is blinking but to hit the gas. He knows no other way: He views coaching as criticism and earnestly believes he is the "best point guard in the NBA" (record since that edict: 36-81, entering the week).

Of course, Brown is not without blame. This Henry Higgins-Eliza Doolittle bit (My Fair Marbury?) was perverted from the start of camp: Whereas he should have sold Marbury on being the leader for a team of eager kids -- emphasizing that winning was out of the question this season -- he threw him into a melange of underachieving veterans who hated playing with Marbury in the first place. The resentment boiled over, and the losses escalated.

But the biggest surprise is Marbury, who should have seen it coming. Midway through a career marked by disappointment -- the Timberwolves, Nets and Suns all got better after they traded him -- you'd think Mom would have told him there'd be seasons like this.



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Copyright © 2006 All rights reserved

great...now its the mothers fault