Need a grin? Steph's 'show' worth a laugh

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

By STEVE ADAMEK
STAFF WRITER



Forget about Manny being Manny. Mr. Ramirez is so Boston -- and so five minutes ago.

Here in these parts, it's now all about Steph being Steph.

Have you caught Mr. Marbury's act lately on television or in the blog he's writing for the tabloid that employs a Knicks correspondent who's become to him what Ahmad Rashad was to Michael Jordan?

First there was a brief MSG Network clip of Steph strolling around a playground during one of his cheap-sneaker-giveaway sessions going off on the Zach Randolph trade as if he were taking Red Bull intravenously.

Then there was his strange sit-down with Bruce Beck (available on YouTube) in which His Steph-ness embarrassed a true professional on live television -- at one point calling his own wife "my better ho'."

Finally, on his blog (in which he calls her "wifey"), Steph declares that he wants to play in Italy after his Knicks' contract runs out in two seasons -- pending someone creating an "arrivederci-Steph.com" Web site to start a contract-buyout collection.

He also wants to write a game story ... for publication.

Someone alert the Pulitzer Prize committee.

Steph attributes his glee to the reception he's getting while touring the country to hand out his Starbury gear -- an admirable program, although it isn't exactly curing cancer.

Still, the player who remains the face of the Knicks, if not their franchise player since Eddy Curry's arrival, often has worn a clown's face lately.

And, as virtually any league executive will tell you (with a snicker), the Knicks are stuck with him until the summer of 2009 because of the virtually untradeable $41 million left on his contract.

Even when it comes off the books in 2009, they're projected to be right at the salary cap -- so they won't have room to troll a free-agent class that could include Kobe Bryant that summer.

So let Boston have Manny -- and his World Series ring. Here, we've got Steph. And his sneakers.

http://www.northjersey.com

[Edited by - COSSUCKS on 07-24-2007 08:37 AM]

This is just more piling on from another "hater" NY Writer. We all know that Steph is a strange dude.

I think his point about Steph's salary and the Knicks cap situation after he leaves is not nearly as big of a deal as he's making it out to be. Isiah isn't looking at a straight up signing of a FA at that time. To be able to do that he'd need to really give up on the next 2 years and trim down the roster as we discussed earlier, but Isiah feels that his chances of landing a superstar FA at that time would be better via a sign and trade. By then many of our young players will have had a chance to develop and we probably will have been in the playoffs a couple of times. So the trade value of our players should be higher. This of course doesn't guarantee a deal, but it's insurance should we be unable to make a deal, we still would have a very good team.

Steve Adamek, I just spoke to Starbury and he requested your phone number, social security number and bank card pin number.

I just think that its important that people do not view Marc Berman as anything close to an unbiased objective journalist so I'm glad others are speaking up about the obvious connection.

He's a cash cow