fishmike
Posts: 53199
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 7/19/2002
Member: #298 USA
|
Dude... you missed half the article The moodiness and the edginess are tempered these days by a veteran's perspective, and by Thomas's mentoring. The president and the point guard, next-door neighbors in Westchester County, confer daily.
"Being under his guidance and his supervision, it's been the best thing as a basketball player and as a person," Marbury said.
Despite his reputation, Marbury has fans in every city of his N.B.A. odyssey: Flip Saunders, his coach in Minnesota; Ed Stefanski, the Nets' general manager; Bryan Colangelo and Mike D'Antoni, the general manager and the coach in Phoenix. But he has no greater supporter than Thomas, who mixes his advice with lectures on defense and leadership. A few weeks ago, Thomas had to calm tensions when Marbury and forward Kurt Thomas exchanged words; the two players continue to work effectively on the court.
"I think Steph has to continue to grow intellectually," Isiah Thomas said.
"The type of leader I think he's developing into, he's accepting of his teammates' criticism. Before, it was like nobody could say if he was doing anything wrong. Teammates were afraid. So everybody kind of sniped behind his back, as opposed to trying to help him and teach him."
Thomas speculated that Marbury had tried to lead through intimidation. That certainly seemed to be the case in New Jersey, where Marbury publicly criticized Kerry Kittles and Keith Van Horn; and in Phoenix, where Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion reportedly grew weary of his demeanor.
By the time Marbury became a Knick, his reputation was established: He could not make his teammates better, and he could not win a playoff series. The selfish label came while Marbury was averaging 17 to 19 shots a game for six seasons.
"That image came from basically playing on teams where you didn't have guys that were able to do certain things to win games," Marbury said. "So I pretty much had to basically put it all on my shoulders."
It is true that the Suns and the Nets improved after Marbury left. The Nets won two straight Eastern Conference titles after trading Marbury for Jason Kidd. The Suns - who signed Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson with the money saved by trading Marbury and Hardaway - have the league's second-best record (41-13).
But consider Marbury's final season with the Nets: Kenyon Martin was a rookie recovering from a broken leg, Kittles missed the season because of knee surgery and Van Horn played in 49 games.
"That year was a such a disarray of injuries," Stefanski said. "Everyone pointed toward Stephon, but that wasn't fair."
When Kidd arrived, he was handed a team that had a healthy Martin, a healthy Kittles and a gifted rookie, Richard Jefferson.
Asterisk in Phoenix
The Suns had some talent around Marbury, but there is an asterisk there, too. Stoudemire, now an All-Star, was a 19-year-old rookie in Marbury's first season there. The next season, Stoudemire missed a month of games, the team slumped and management - looking for a way to dump salary and chase Kobe Bryant in free agency - dealt Marbury and Hardaway to the Knicks.
"Steph is really a very unselfish player," a Suns official said. But once divisions arise, he added, "Steph isn't good with breaking it down, with the way he acts."
In four seasons as Marbury's teammate, Hardaway has seen it all. The two had a falling out in Phoenix, yet Hardaway believes he understands Marbury better than most - the exasperated glares, the sharp words, all of it.
"If you don't understand Steph or know him, you would take that in a bad way," Hardaway said. "But he just wants to win so bad.
"He expects a lot from his teammates, because he brings a lot to the table, and if you don't meet up to those expectations, he might give up on you. If you're not giving it 100 percent out there and you're lazy, he gets turned off by that."
But Hardaway added: "Every game I can see, he's off the bench cheering when I do something or teammates do something. He wants to support guys now. That lets me know he's trying to become more of a leader."
Some of Marbury's most meaningful gestures are kept private. He does not talk about his dinner on Thanksgiving, when he invited Jamal Crawford and Trevor Ariza, whose families are on the West Coast, to celebrate with his family.
"He's really looked out for us," said Crawford, perhaps Marbury's closest friend in the locker room.
Marbury said: "You don't force-feed anyone to basically be in your presence. You know the people who want to be in your presence. I think the things that I've done over my career, I've done everything the real way. I never do nothing fake."
Early last season, while still in Phoenix, Marbury was introduced to his new teammate and protégé, the rookie Leandro Barbosa. All Marbury knew of him was that he was skinny, Brazilian and poor. When he heard Barbosa needed a new car, Marbury called a dealer in New Jersey and ordered a Cadillac Escalade. Marbury paid for it. "He really took an interest in the kid's life," said the Suns official who related the story.
The Knicks can only hope that the next stage of Marbury's development is enough to lift them back to respectability. Marbury, who turned 28 on Sunday, is averaging 21.3 points and 8.2 assists and shooting a career-best .473 from the field. He is indeed passing more, and sometimes deferring too much. "He's always been a guy that in my view that I would hate to play with, because he has to have the ball all the time," said a scout for another N.B.A. team. "But lately, maybe he's trying to change that, because it's not been successful."
Some suggest Marbury may be best suited to play shooting guard, rather than point guard, to maximize his skills and keep him from dominating the ball. "I think a lot of people expect him to be a great point guard, but I don't think that's his main suit," D'Antoni said.
Knicks Need More Help
In any case, the Knicks need to provide Marbury with more help. They lack a dominant post player. Their best shooter, Allan Houston, is a knee twinge from retirement. Their next best scorer, Crawford, is young and untamed. The young prospects, Ariza and Mike Sweetney, are not ready for major roles.
A Western Conference scout who has watched several Knicks games referred to Marbury's surrounding cast as "a bunch of marginal role players."
Isiah Thomas said the Knicks would rise again when he found "four or five more guys" with the toughness to match Marbury and Kurt Thomas. Until then, Marbury will be judged on his past, and Isiah Thomas will be judged on his faith in the player from Brooklyn with the hazy reputation.
"I know that Isiah is not going to settle for what's going on," Marbury said. "And I know that eventually it's going to change."
"winning is more fun... then fun is fun" -Thibs
|