In the past, the Knicks locker room sounded like a pretty tense place, what with all the constant losing, players sniping about roles and PR flaks giving beat reporters the evil eye.

Donnie Walsh promised he'd help change the atmosphere of the entire organization, and his decision to bring in a player's coach in Mike D'Antoni was sure to help the locker room mood ... right? As Marc Berman of the New York Post describes it, let's just say it's a work in progress:

Mike, do us a favor? Play Patrick Ewing Jr. in Boston Friday. It's time. Ewing has three straight DNPs and even got grumpy in the locker room. He brusquely asked a reporter, who was interviewing Chris Duhon next to his locker, to move away from his airspace. Hey Patrick, this ain't Georgetown.

On that note, there was another telling moment in the locker room tonight. Stephon Marbury told a writer to move away from inside his locker-room cubicle as he emerged from the shower. The two had an exchange, nothing big. The more telling part was Jamal Crawford motioning to a couple of media members to check out the scene. It's apparent which combo guard wants Marbury out of town.

I won't hold it against a player for telling a reporter to move -- after all, the locker room is the players' domain, and reporters should anticipate that the tall, wet guys walking around wearing towels want to get to their clothes. That said, the most interesting nugget from Berman's anecdote is obviously Crawford's decidely un-Crawsome decision to draw attention to Marbury's tiff. It's going to take a bit more cooperation than selling out your teammate to get this little experiment to work, fellas.

via the Fanhouse

[Edited by - mythfaze on 10-15-2008 4:27 PM]

Crawford is just a much a loser as Marbury. The only difference is Marbury is a crackhead.

Berman is a real trip. I mean really... this guy is so in the tank for Steph that it's criminal. In the end Jamal should be a bigger man than that, but still Berman is a snake and is just looking for ways to stick it to the Knicks in defense of Steph. Ultimately this team is gonna need both Steph and Jamal to step up TEN FOLD from what they're doing now in order to win this year. Either that or Walsh should move them and be done with it. We have a decent core of guys who are doing what MDA asks and then there are those guys who aren't pulling their weight so far. As we move closer to the season I want to see some improvement from Jamal and Steph.

^In my eyes, Berman lost his credibility after the Sprewell incident, and at this point, he still strikes me as more of a gossip columnist.

Why would anyone believe Berman's account of anything? Now all of a sudden, Houston went out of his way to hide an injury, Jr.'s supposed to be happy and smiling 24/7 even when some lard ass reporter wants to act like the locker room is his personal living room, Crawford's an antagonist giggling in the corner with reporters and the world is out to get his "boy".

Crawford has a good relationship with most of the media guys. He could have been pointing to the sky and Berman would have taken it as a knock on Marbury. This is a guy who acts like Duhon is beneath him and feels the need to write petty **** about his "relationship" with D'Antoni because he starts over Marbury.

Jamal and Steph aren't as close as they were a couple of years ago. Okay. We get it. Big ****ing deal. The same beat writers who hammered that Q/Steph beef into the ground didn't make a peep when Q and Steph were all buddy buddy last year.

They all report what they want to. Berger's slant is trying to make Steph look like the smelly fat kid in the corner that no one talks to, which is false. Berman's slant is trying to make Steph look like some tragic victim who didn't get a chance, which is also false. Give me a break. Just report the ****ing news and leave the soap opera **** out of it. At this rate, the only one worth reading is Hahn with a little Isola every now and then.

You really have to wonder who Berman is going to latch on to once Steph's hit the road.

Maybe he'll go with him...?

[Edited by - K22 on 2008-10-15 5:24 PM]

I didn't like that Berman mentioned that at all. Gossip columnist is right. Why bring it up at all, even if it did happen? It can only lead to bad blood in one way or another. This only deepens my dislike for these media dudes.