Isiah gets late assist
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/special/story/226212p-194309c.html
Word to Steph is good call

Stephon Marbury is on an Isiah Thomas-inspired mission.

Isiah Thomas never played in the Olympics, even though he was one of the great small men to ever play the game. He would've gone to Moscow in 1980, but then-President Carter boycotted those Summer Games. He was in the pros by 1984, and we weren't sending Dream Team pros yet. Then he did not get the invitation he deserved in 1992, when the first Dream Team, the one with Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, went to Barcelona. So he did not just see Stephon Marbury as a Knick yesterday, the Knick on whom Thomas has everything riding. Thomas saw more. He saw Marbury have the best game of his whole basketball life on a stage that Isiah Thomas still can only imagine.

"I am totally living through him," Thomas said in the early afternoon. "I told him to take a lot of pictures."


But in the early morning yesterday, in front of the television set at Thomas' new home in Westchester County, the pictures were there for him and everybody else to see. There was Marbury, who had averaged just over four points a game in his first five Olympic games in Athens, taking over the court against Spain the way he has been taking over courts all the way back to Coney Island, scoring more points (31) than any U.S. Olympic basketball player in history, doing all this in the biggest basketball game he has played in his life.


Marbury won the PSAL championship for Abraham Lincoln High, at the Garden. There was never a championship game or anything close in college. He has played in playoff games in the NBA, won some, never been close to a title since Lincoln High. So there had never been a game like USA vs. Spain, where it was lose and go home without coming close to any kind of medal.


And on this day, for this one day with stakes like that, Stephon Marbury of New York City was the best player in the world. The man who brought him to New York - Isiah - cheered along with the rest of us.


"We've been talking, on average, twice a day," Thomas said. "And the thing I've been stressing with him is this: 'Remember who you are. The guys you've been playing against, the guys who've had to guard you and you've had to guard, they are inferior players to you.' I told him not to be afraid to score the basketball. Not to concentrate so much on distributing the ball that you forget to knock down shots. Today he knocked down shots."


For a few hours yesterday morning, it was basketball season in New York. This wasn't just another U.S. Olympian trying to pick his team up, after that team was written off in the first week. This was one of ours.


Marbury said the other day that he hadn't prepared the way he should have for Athens, that he had been lifting more weights this summer than playing ball. So when the open shots he was taking wouldn't fall, he got in the gym, and stayed there until they did, stayed there until he got out there against a Spanish team that had been 5-0 the first week and made everything he looked at, all the way until that hysterical Spanish coach acted as if U.S. coach Larry Brown had slashed his tires when the game was over.


"I think the first week, he tried to be too much of a pure point guard," Isiah Thomas said. "It wasn't just that he wasn't making shots. He wasn't taking enough shots, all in the interest of getting everyone else involved. But guess what? A lot of pure point guards can't get you 25 points when you need them. Steph can. It's why, in my opinion, he's such a special talent. Forget about point guards, shooting guards. There is no category for a special talent."


"I've watched every game," Isiah said. "Puerto Rico. Lithuania. All of them. I just kept telling him, 'Make those guys think defense, not offense. Knock them off-balance." Isiah laughed. "Then I told him what he said on television after the game today: 'If it's gonna be a gunfight, draw your gun first.'"


Marbury and his U.S. teammates are hardly in the clear. They still need to get a game today to get to the gold medal game. But they did not go home yesterday. One of ours got Spain.


There have been a lot of basketball days for Stephon Marbury. Never one better than this. His boss, Isiah Thomas himself, had a lot of basketball days, college and the pros. Never one like this. Never a basketball day when he was the best in the world.

Originally published on August 27, 2004

"I am totally living through him," Thomas said in the early afternoon.

I love this quote. Isiah is mentoring Marbury in a way that few people ever could. Not only is he imparting knowledge, strategy, and wisdom, he is also attempting to reach him on a psychological level, in the hope that Steph can excel mentally as well as physically.

I think Isiah's gonna be a great mentor for Jamal as well

Nice article.

I'm dying for the NBA season to start. I want to see the results of all this mentoring. I feel completely positive about this situation.

Let's go Marbs!! Let's go Team USA!! Let's go Knicks!!

Great article, I hope Stephon lets himself loose again today and plays well again. We're gonna need him again today against a very tough Argentina.

Good article...nothing's going to keep me from watching that game today.

actually its Marbury whos in w/ the Isiah love fest. While Marbury has had a stasticly stellar career he's looking for the type of mentoring only someone like Isiah could offer. Someone who is one the NBAs 50 greatest players and a two time NBA champ himself.

Marbury knows where to look for the help that will bring him to the next level, and win NY a title, just like Isiah did twice.

and everyone of those players blossumed under his tenure. Damon was rookie of the year, Jermaine became and all star and would now be a Spur if he knew Isiah wouldnt coach him and now Marbury is looking to elevate his game to a championship level.

Your right... this love must stop. Clearly there is a destructive pattern here.

Lets try to put some kind of negative twist on EVERYTHING Isiah does.

Posted by islesfan:

Exactly, he attaches himself to his best players. It won't work otherwise since there's nothing to gain from attaching himself to the mediocre ones.

Did I say it was a destructive pattern? I just said it was Isiah being a leach who attaches himself to people he can get something from.

Maybe he just knows that to be successful, he has to have the star on his side. See Van Gundy's relationship with Ewing, Popovich with Duncan, Flip with KG, Phil Jax with Shaq or Jordan and so on and so forth. It not only makes sense to get the star on your side, it usually leads to good things.

If Marbury isn't worried about the management trying to backstab him the way Spree and Camby were worried about these things, then I think it can only be a good thing and one less distraction. I think clearly Isiah wants to succeed for his own reasons, but I also think that this relationship they have is a very positive thing. Marbury helped recruit Jamal Crawford because he agreed with Isiah's ideas and because he trusted Isiah wasn't bringing in Craw to replace him at the point.

Trust is important. I don't think you're being fair on this one, Isles.

this is so assanine. Your knocking Isiah for forming relationships with the most important people in an organization. What happens when a star players turns on an organization. Penny Hardaway and Brian Hill, Shaq and the Magic... i'm not even going to think about examples because this is so stupid.

I know you love to throw a negative anti Isiah twist on everything but you just cant with this one. Any coach or GM in the NBA that forms a relationship w/ their best player is doing the right thing.

Is Phil Jackson fake because of his "lovefest" with Shaq and Jordan? Or is he brilliant because he put himself in a position to criticize the games most dominant players in ways that would result in them improving their games?

What are you saying anyway?

I don't remember those other coaches getting all kissy face and teary eyed when it came to their players.

I'm not saying that it's not a good idea to have a strong relationship between a coach or GM and their best player. Isiah just goes overboard in showing how "close" they are. Like a leach making sure that he's attached himself securely to his host. It just goes to show what type of person he is and what he's all about. Namely himself.