NY Media articles after the game

CHANEY CRASHES
STEPHON'S PARTY

By MARC BERMAN
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January 9, 2004 -- Rockets 111 - Knicks 79

Stephon Marbury's Garden lovefest turned ugly last night with an angry mob chanting for Don Chaney's scalp.

For the first time during his 71-111 Knick reign, a sold-out Garden crowd periodically chanted "Fire Chaney" as the Rockets butchered the Knicks, 111-79, with Jeff Van Gundy showing no mercy on his former club.

The first chant began lightly three minutes into the game with the Rockets up 19-2, a lead that ballooned to 23-2 after six minutes. Yes, the Knicks were down 21 points halfway through the first period and trailed by double digits across the game's final 45 minutes.

Marbury is here and the Knicks still stink.

"I would never think it would happen this bad," said Marbury, who shot 3 of 12 for six points in his Garden debut, burned by Steve Francis. Marbury also had four turnovers and 10 assists.


"Awful, awful," Chaney said.

Chaney didn't object to the chant, although he didn't realize what it was until told after the game by a Knick official. The fans chanted it at four separate junctures of the game.

"I didn't know what they were chanting," Chaney said. "I found out later. It's a good chant. We stunk."

Said Marbury, "That's New York." The Rockets made eight of their first nine shots and were left free from the 3-point stripe all night. "I was surprised our guys didn't get up for the game," Chaney said. "It was like a playoff atmosphere. I expected playoff basketball."

New boss Isiah Thomas watched from the tunnel, looking furious. He bolted soon after the game but told TNT when asked about Chaney, "They've been down for a while. We're not going to turn it around overnight. We'll continue to evaluate."

The Knicks (14-23) have lost four straight. They are 0-2 with Marbury. If Thomas takes the fans' recommendation, the likeliest scenario is for Thomas to replace Chaney with assistant Brendan Malone, his coach in Toronto and his assistant in Indiana.

During the second "Fire Chaney" chant in the second quarter with the Knicks down 37-23, Van Gundy shook his head and mumbled, "That's bull." Afterward, Van Gundy defended his successor, saying "They're fortunate to have him."

The night started out so wonderfully, so electrically. Van Gundy got a big roar from the Garden crowd, as did assistant Patrick Ewing, cheered the moment he stepped out of the tunnel.

Marbury was the first Knick introduced, as the P.A. announcer bellowed, "At guard, from Georgia Tech, welcome home, Stephon Marbury." A standing ovation ensued, then a video tribute.

Marbury was cheered when he brought the ball up the first time but the Knicks couldn't make a shot, with Allan Houston going 3 of 11 for eight points in 26 minutes. He also missed a pair of free throws in the first half after missing just eight all season, that's how frazzled they were.

Van Gundy had pointed out Houston's free-throw prowess before the game and after the league's leading foul shooter bricked the first, the Rockets coach turned to his coaching staff and said, "Oh bleep."

"It's tough to hear the home crowd booing your coach," Houston said, when he's not the one playing and we were pressing. We're so trying to get used to each other instead of just making stops."

Said Marbury, "We were just a little confused out there. It's only a matter of time before everything comes together."

Marbury was torched by Francis, who collected 27 points, got to the foul line 12 times and sank three 3-pointers. The Rockets shot 11 of 21 from the 3-point line, as the Knicks didn't cover anyone.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/44680.htm

 

THIS DEBACLE CALLS FOR NEW KNICK COACH

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January 9, 2004 -- THE issue no longer is should Don Chaney be fired. Chaney has to be fired. Immediately. Today. This morning. If Isiah Thomas and James Dolan want to retain even a thread of credibility with their fans, they need to move on this at once.
They want to keep selling their fans that the immediate goal is still to make the playoffs? They start by jettisoning Chaney, satisfying a million disgusted customers. That's the first building block. This should have happened long ago, but what's past is past, and what's done is done. The time for compassion, for feeling sorry for a good man ill-suited to a big job, died long ago.

What the Knicks did last night was nothing short of disgraceful. In his own way, Jeff Van Gundy did the same thing during his homecoming that Latrell Sprewell did during his: He humiliated Dolan, he embarrassed his old team, he came into the Garden and reminded one and all that there is so little character left on this team, so little pride, so little fight, it's all but impossible to measure.

How bad was this 111-79 butchering? This bad: The Rockets took a double-digit lead, 13-2, just 2:53 into the first quarter. For the remaining 45 minutes and 7 seconds, the Knicks never got the lead into single figures. Never. Not once. That is about as complete a burial as one team can administer to another.

"We played like strangers," Chaney said, which was his pathetic attempt to register some sort of excuse for what happened, and it was insulting to hear. Strangers? Guess what? NBA teams make trades all the time. They pick up players on the fly. They shake up rosters. It's a coach's job to make it all work, to make it all fit, to make sure they don't commit manslaughter on their ticket holders.

The worst part? That wasn't the worst thing Chaney said. This is the worst thing he said, when asked how it felt to see the Knicks throw buckets of cold water all over this sold-out, playoff-buzzworthy evening:

"I'm disappointed. I was up for it. I don't understand why our guys weren't up for the game."

The 19,763 people who witnessed this wake certainly did. They've seen Chaney relentlessly out-coached on almost every night of his tenure, and they're tired of it. It was early in the first quarter when the first chants of "Fire Chaney!" bounced around the Garden. Chaney said he didn't hear them, which is impossible to believe. His old boss heard them, Van Gundy shaking his head and muttering, "That's bullbleep," to himself.

Van Gundy's loyalty is touching, but it's beyond any relevance to Knicks fans. They need to see Isiah do something, anything. They have Stephon Marbury on the roster now. You can't hand a man a Ferrari if he has a hard enough time driving a Chevy.

Thomas has four short-term solutions. He can turn to the two former coaches on his bench, Lon Kruger or Brendan Malone. He can turn to himself. Or he can really get creative, make a call to his old coach, 73-year-old Chuck Daly, and see if he'd like to reacquaint the Knicks with the notion of professionalism the rest of the year, be Hubie Brown without the Little Caesar haircut.

Long-term, Thomas should have two distinct wishes. The one that would make Knicks fans salivate would be sweet-talking Pat Riley away from South Beach, back to New York to finish what was interrupted nearly nine years ago. Failing that, Doc Rivers has long been thought of as a Knicks coach in-waiting; it would be time to remove the last three syllables of that title.

Knicks fans will take anything at this point. If Chaney is allowed to finish out the day with his job intact, if he's sitting on the bench when the Bucks get their whacks at them tomorrow, they should prove how much they don't care by staying away from the mausoleum formerly known as the world's most famous arena. Until someone hears their voices.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/44679.htm

 

RIGHT VAN FOR THE JOB

George Willis

January 9, 2004 -- THE KNICKS fans who weren't chanting "Fire Chaney!" last night at the Garden must have left the building mumbling about what might have been had Jeff Van Gundy not abruptly resigned as head coach 25 months ago. Certainly, the Knicks wouldn't be this bad if he were on the bench, glum look and all.
No doubt Don Chaney's days as Knicks head coach are numbered after the 48-minute eyesore his team produced in a deflating 111-79 loss to Van Gundy's Rockets. Think of the ugliest performance by an NBA team you've ever seen and the Knicks were worse, embarrassing themselves in front of a crowd that desperately wanted a reason to cheer.

While the Knicks were unwatchable, the Rockets had a familiar look. They played defense the way the Knicks used to play: aggressive, relentless, persistent - Van Gundy defense. When the Rockets jetted to a 23-2 start, the game was over.

Welcome home, Stephon Marbury.

Van Gundy, 20-15 and headed for the playoffs, was humble as always after the rout. "We played real well," he said. "All the credit has to go to the players."

He received a warm ovation when he was introduced, but Van Gundy later heard the "Fire Chaney!" chants and tried to throw some bouquets to his former assistant.

"That game had nothing to do with coaching," he said. "If everybody has the right amount of patience, [the Knicks] are going to be difficult to play with."

Truth is, the Knicks have been a mess since Van Gundy announced his resignation 19 games into the 2001-02 season. For two seasons there hadn't been a glimmer of hope, then two weeks ago owner James Dolan had the good sense to fire general manager Scott Layden and replace him with Isiah Thomas.

So perhaps it was fitting the coach who left the franchise when it was headed toward wreckage was back on the night the building blocks for restoration finally appeared to be in place.

That it has taken this long for the Knicks to become relevant is not entirely Van Gundy's fault, even though they are 71-111 since he left.

"I don't think me leaving and that happening was anything more than coincidence," Van Gundy said before the game. He cited "unbelievable bad luck" for the Knicks problems.

Van Gundy never has fully explained why he left the Knicks with a year remaining on his contract. It has allowed for speculation that has ranged from being emotionally affected by the loss of a friend in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to being miffed that Dolan wouldn't give him a contract extension.

Given the chance yesterday to clarify, Van Gundy took the fifth. "To go into specifics, it's not right," he said. "I made my decision. I live with it and live with others' judgments about it, and rightfully so. If I'm not willing to go into every detail, I can't expect people to understand it. I don't think it does anybody any good."

Later, Van Gundy said something interesting, which may reflect on his relationship with Dolan at the time. "I still feel today in my heart, it's not only what was best for me and best for the organization, but wanted by the organization as well."

Whether it was burnout, grief or knowing the Knicks were headed for a difficult season that might have ended in his firing, Van Gundy's quick escape turned out to be a shrewd move. He kept his reputation as a winner intact, landed a high-paying gig as Rockets head coach, and left Knicks fans wondering what might have been.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/44677.htm

 

MARBURY'S DREAM
WAS NIGHTMARE

By DAN MARTIN

January 9, 2004 -- Stephon Marbury has said more times than he can remember it had always been his dream to play at the Garden for the Knicks.
Last night, the Coney Island native, playing in front of family members and countless friends, admitted his imagination never came up with anything as ugly as his debut went.

"I would never think it would happen this bad," Marbury said. "We're going to have to go back to the drawing board, especially on defense."

You can't blame Marbury for being surprised at the outcome of the Knicks' atrocious 111-79 loss to the Rockets, the home team's worst of the year. No one would ever let his dream turn out this badly.

Marbury hit 3 of 12 shots and finished with six points. Worse, the game was over in the first quarter and what had been a sellout crowd dwindled to a typical dreary gathering by the end of the nightmare.

What was left of the crowd booed loudly down the stretch, a scene all too familiar despite the new faces it was directed at.

Marbury remained upbeat despite the slow start.

"People have to be patient with us because we will click," Marbury said. "It's destined for us to click. It's different when a point guard comes in. It takes a while for the transition to happen, not like when a big man comes. But it's gonna happen."

When it will is anyone's guess. Marbury's new teammates aren't accustomed to his quickness and his ability to drive past people. That was apparent last night, something Don Chaney observed to his chagrin.

"A lot of times Stephon would penetrate and we didn't move," Chaney said. "We were totally out of sync."

Marbury noticed the same thing.

"They're not used someone getting into the hole like I do," said Marbury, who finished with 10 assists. "They're used to standing still."

Last night, that was the Knicks' strategy on defense, as well, but Marbury insisted things would get better.

"Tomorrow we'll go to practice and regroup," Marbury said. "We cannot dwell on this. With a win, this all goes away."

http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/44674.htm

 

EW EYES FUTURE IN COACHING

By DAN MARTIN
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January 9, 2004 -- Patrick Ewing doesn't expect to be on Jeff Van Gundy's staff for much longer. It's not that he hasn't taken to his new job as Rockets assistant coach, but rather that he has his eyes set on something bigger - becoming a head coach.
"I'm just waiting for an opportunity," Ewing said before the Rockets handed the Knicks a 111-79 throttling last night at the Garden. "I'm ready."

The Knick legend spent his time before the game chatting with former teammates like Allan Houston, as well as going through drills with Houston's struggling center, Yao Ming.

While he said he was enjoying his time with his old Knick coach, Ewing added that he was hoping to get a more significant challenge.

"One day," Ewing said when asked if he saw a head coaching position in his future. "Hopefully one day soon."

The concept is not far-fetched. Despite Ewing's relative inexperience in the coaching ranks, Van Gundy believes his former player has "a good feel" for the job.

Ewing cited a current head coach as proof that he has a good chance of success, if promoted.

"Terry Porter is doing fantastic," Ewing said of Milwaukee's first-year coach who took over after only two years as an assistant. Ewing, who spent last season as a Wizards assistant, will have the same resume after this season. "The sky's the limit."

Ewing was impressed with the addition of Stephon Marbury, although he didn't envy the Coney Island native's return home.

"I feel sorry for him," Ewing said. "All the pressure. But he should be accustomed to it from growing up here and playing in Jersey."

http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/44673.htm

 

Knicks: Marbury wins the cheers, Van Gundy's Rockets win the game

Friday, January 09, 203
BY STEVE POLITI
Star-Ledger Staff

NEW YORK -- The first roar came at 7:17 p.m. The crowd at Madison Square Garden, hearing the familiar name, acknowledged former Knicks coach with cheers and applause. Jeff Van Gundy sat in his seat, looking straight ahead.

He was back.

The second roar -- the louder one, as Van Gundy had predicted -- came less than two minutes later. The crowd heard another familiar name, a favorite son from Coney Island, and came to life. Stephon Marbury lifted his hand and smiled.

He was home.

"Hey, Stephon!" one fan yelled. "This is all yours, baby!"

So it began last night, with two kindred basketball spirits, a coach and a superstar, returning to a place they love. Marbury had 10 assists but just six points on 3-of-12 shooting, and Van Gundy's Houston Rockets handed the Knicks an embarrassing 111-79 loss.

This was their night:

It was 53 minutes before tipoff when Van Gundy finally got his hands on the blue felt pen and started diagramming plays.

This was all he wanted to do last night -- all he ever wanted to do as a coach, really. Stand in front of a white erase board, pick up that pen, and scribble those numbers and squiggly lines for his team.

The other stuff made it difficult. He spent 17 minutes answering questions in a Garden hallway, a media mob six deep around him. He said he was nervous. He said his new team had progressed too slowly. He said he had often thought about his decision to leave the Garden after 13 years, always coming to the same conclusion: It was the right move.

He slipped out of the pack and headed into the locker room ... but only briefly. He had another visitor, Knicks coach Don Chaney, who exchanged pleasantries and asked about his daughter. Van Gundy recycled a line he had used before, "She's 8, but she talks like she's 16."

The men embraced. Then Van Gundy went back into the locker room. Once again he picked up the blue felt pen.

A few minutes later, he walked onto the court.

"You can't play here or coach here and have this place not mean something extraordinary to you," he said later. "If you love basketball and you love competition, there is nothing like walking out of that tunnel."



Celebrity row was back. Rapper Jay-Z and his girlfriend, singer/actress Beyonce Knowles, sat next to "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrall. Two "Sopranos" stars, Lorraine Bracco and Steve Schirripa, were in the building, but not together. Woody Allen was there, of course. So was Ed Bradley, the "60 Minutes" reporter.

So were plenty of fans who might not have bought tickets last week, but scalped them for this game.

"Yeah, I came to see (Marbury)," said Frank Harris, a Long Island resident, as he walked into the building. "There wasn't much to see before."

They waited to be wowed, to finally have a reason to forget about the struggles. Marbury did not give them much to go on. He had just one field goal in the first quarter, and not until 10.3 seconds remained.

His team struggled mightily. The Rockets hit their first seven shots, racing to a 23-2 lead, and the fans who had greeted everyone with bright smiles and cheers were grumbling, then booing, then yelling, "Fire Chaney!"

"Hey, Zeke," one fan yelled at team president Isiah Thomas, who was standing with his arms folded in the corner. "You got one. Now you need four more!"

Things just went his way. Van Gundy has coached enough games during his career to know he will have a few like this.

He even managed to get referee Steve Javie to change a foul call to a charge on the Knicks, leading to a turnover. "Thank you, Jeff," Javie said as he ran down the court. Yup, it was that kind of night.

Van Gundy paced, stomped, cussed. He yelled "nose" and "adjust" and "solid," coaxing everything out of his team. He patiently tried to tell English-impaired center Yao Ming where to stand on one play.

Van Gundy went on and on before the game, praising Allan Houston for his all-around skills -- including his free-throw shooting. Then Houston stepped to the line in the second quarter and bricked not one, but two attempts.

"Holy (cow)!" Van Gundy said.

The Rockets were building a 30-point lead.

Yup, that kind of night.

Mabel Marbury sat quietly in her seat, wearing a fit-for-church tan dress, listening to the boos. This was supposed to be a dream come true for her son. How did it turn out like this?

It was an emotional week for Mom Marbury. She sat in her Coney Island home on Monday, watching NBA TV all day, trying to get the latest news about the trade. The phone hasn't stopped ringing since.

"Well, the score is not what I would like, but it's not over," she said, even as the Rockets began to pull further and further away. "It's going to take some time for everyone to learn how to play with one another. ... It's so great that he's living out his dream."

Her husband, Don, sat to her left. Her other children and nieces and nephews and friends -- far too many to mention -- sat scattered around the building. Everyone asked for tickets. Everyone had to be here.

No one expected this.

The scoreboard read "Rockets 99, Knicks 67." The electricity that filled the building at the start was long gone, and the familiar feeling from the past two seasons -- malaise, discontent, apathy -- was back.

"Come on, Marbury," one fan yelled. "Get it going. All the courts are the same."

Marbury -- and Van Gundy, for that matter -- would argue differently. This court is very different for them, a place they revere. The place was kind to Van Gundy last night, but not so kind to Marbury.

The two men walked back down the same tunnel, each turning in a different direction and heading to a different locker room.

Van Gundy tried to deflect criticism away from his friend, Chaney, insisting his team simply played one of its best games of the season.

"If you can spot yourself a cushion on the road, it's important," Van Gundy said. "But that cushion is a little unheard of. ... I've been on the other side of nights like that."

Marbury smiled when asked how a night that began as a celebration had ended with so much unhappiness.

"I would never think it could happen this bad," he said. "(But) after a win, this all goes away. That's how it goes in New York if you're losing. You've got to win. I'm aware of it. Everyone is aware of it.

"That's New York."

http://www.nj.com/knicks/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1073631085105570.xml

 

Knicks: Fans' reaction: 'Fire Chaney!'

Chants fill Garden as Knicks fall flat

Friday, January 09, 203
BY COLIN STEPHENSON
Star-Ledger Staff

NEW YORK -- It started as a lovefest, with an amped-up Madison Square Garden crowd eager to shower Brooklyn-born Stephon Marbury with love on his New York homecoming. But, by the end of the night, it turned into something entirely different.

The fans had come to see Marbury's home debut, but when Jeff Van Gundy's Houston Rockets trampled the Knicks, 111-79, the crowd became ugly, calling for the head of Knicks' coach Don Chaney.

"Fire Chaney!" they chanted, over and over, as the Knicks (14-23) went down to their worst loss of the season. It was the fourth loss in a row and second in a row since Marbury and Penny Hardaway were acquired Monday in the eight-player deal with Phoenix.

"I didn't hear it," Chaney said of the fans' venomous cries. "I knew they were chanting; I didn't know what. I found out later.

"It's a good chant," he added quickly. "We stunk tonight."

Knicks general manager Isiah Thomas, who watched the game from his usual spot, standing in the runway from the floor to the locker rooms, left before the game ended. He wasn't around after the game to talk about what he thought of the chants or Chaney's job security. But Chaney's record since taking over for Van Gundy in December 2001, is 71-111.

Knicks players were supportive of Chaney after hearing the chants.

"It's tough to hear the home crowd blame the coach when he's not playing," Allan Houston said. "We're the ones out there playing. So that is tough. Because you know that he's doing everything he can to prepare us at practice. Sometimes you get out there, and you're cloudy out there."

"We feel bad about it, the way we played, and nobody is happy in this room tonight," said Dikembe Mutombo. "I think the simple thing, for all of us, we have to understand, there's a new chemistry that's been brought here. Nobody in this room wants to use this as an excuse. We have great new players that have been brought to us ... things didn't click right away. I believe it will click sometime soon."

Even Van Gundy had words of support for Chaney.

"I would just say that game had nothing to do with coaching," Van Gundy said. "That was a team that needs patience, they played against a team that played real well, shot well. I think if everybody has the right amount of patience, they're going to get going and they're going to be very difficult to deal with."

The Rockets, who had lost by 19 points in Detroit Wednesday night, started fast, hitting their first seven shots, and racing out to a 23-2 lead. Chaney called two timeouts during the opening run, but they had no effect.

"We played like strangers on both ends of the floor," Chaney said. "It was an awful performance. We couldn't make a basket, and we couldn't defend."

"You go into the game expecting to have a good performance, expecting to fight," said Houston, the Knicks' captain. "And then when the game starts the way it does, it's like you slip into quicksand and can't get out of it. It was hard recovering, and it just kept going bad. We just kept missing shots. It's like the air just kept leaking out of our balloon. You can't get negative, but we do have some work to do."

"We wanted to click so bad right away," said Hardaway, who also made his home debut, finishing with five points on 1-of-8 shooting in 25 minutes. "To come out and play like this tonight is really embarrassing."

http://www.nj.com/knicks/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1073631056105570.xml