I wish I could spend a couple of days in NY and chat with some Knicks fans and listen to a little bit of their sportsradio. Y'all know I don't like Starbury, but the thing about LB is he never EVER seems to take the high road. If there is a verbal spat he ALWAYS insists on getting the last word. There is no way both Marbury and LB come back next season. LB will extort the Knicks about his health or something like that until they guarantee him Marbury will be traded. I thought his verbal spats with AI a few years ago pushed the limit but this is a new level. LB makes Don Chaney (remember his tenure) seem like a players coach. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/sports/basketball/07knicks.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Point Guard and Coach Go Another Round Article Tools Sponsored By By MAREK FUCHS Published: March 7, 2006 GREENBURGH, N.Y., March 6 — A point guard is said to be the player who extends his coach's presence onto the court, which implies a fluid relationship or, at worst, a bit of creative tension. In the case of the Knicks, there has been a lot more tension than creativity between Coach Larry Brown and guard Stephon Marbury, which probably helps explain why the team has been so overmatched this season. The latest installment in their troubled relationship came after practice Monday. Throughout the season, the relationship has gone from bad to better to bad again — with a couple of mood swings in between. Like a reeling marriage in need of a therapist, Brown and Marbury cannot stay on the same page very long. Before Saturday night's game at Milwaukee — a game the Knicks actually won, 103-98 — Marbury told reporters that even though the team was deep into the season, it still seemed confused on the court. The implication was that Brown had been unable to make the players understand his system, at least in part because he has rotated so many players in and out of the lineup. Brown answered back Monday by being dismissive of Marbury's comments, although he never mentioned his point guard by name. "I don't react to what he says," Brown said, referring to Marbury. He then responded to what Marbury had said and, at one point, suggested that players who did not want to put the team first "ought to run track, play golf, play tennis — things like that." In his comments, Brown maintained that his own system was nowhere near as complex as the one used by the Phoenix Suns. He said his required only that the players share the ball. "If we share the ball and try to guard and try to play hard, you'll generally get something accomplished," Brown said. "I've been preaching that forever. If you want to listen and learn, you'll get it. If you don't, chances are you won't figure it out." Marbury was already gone; he had left practice quickly, without talking to reporters. Brown, however, was not done. "I've never talked anything about being a systems coach in my life," he said. "I've been a basketball coach, about guys playing the right way. And I think that's always been what I've said. It's amazing to me that the guys who have wanted to have really prospered, wherever I've been. It's always about the team, and that's the only thing that really matters." That Marbury and Brown have had some rough moments together on the Knicks has come as no surprise. They coexisted awkwardly during the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Problems began to emerge after the eighth game of the season, a 97-92 loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles. Marbury, who had 10 assists but only 4 points, seemed befuddled, saying, "I'm not playing the way how I normally play." Brown, told of those comments, responded: "When have we won here? Did we win the other way?" He then revealed that Marbury had asked to play more at shooting guard. After a 112-92 drubbing against Milwaukee on Dec. 12 at Madison Square Garden, Brown commented about the absence of an on-court coach to guide the Knicks' younger players. "Right now," he said, "we don't have anybody with a head that can get them in spots and take the pressure off them." In a game Dec. 28 at Orlando, Marbury shot 0 for 7 from the field and finished with 5 points and 3 assists. Brown all but accused him of going on strike. "I think he just didn't want to shoot the ball," he said after the game, "so I thought he'd have 15, 20 assists." Marbury gave a verbal shrug, saying, "I was trying to do everything that Coach wanted me to do, as far as running the team." In early January, Marbury said that he disagreed with Brown's lambasting of players publicly, then allowed that it motivated him. By Jan. 12, the Knicks had won five games in a row on the strength of some of the best basketball of Marbury's career. Brown gave Marbury his highest possible praise. "He's playing like a point guard," Brown said. But four days later, Marbury collided with Wally Szczerbiak in a 96-90 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, injuring his left shoulder. The Knicks' season has since dissolved into loss upon loss. Marbury is back, playing in pain. In the fourth quarter of the Knicks 108-101 loss to Chicago on Friday, he argued a fourth-quarter foul call instead of getting back on defense, allowing Ben Gordon to score a key 3-pointer. The gap between coach and his extension on the court widened again, and it seemed to grow wider Monday.
MAN! What does Marbury's Contract look like? Will they be able to get rid of it? BTW When does Alan Houston come off the books for them? STARBURY: I think he should call ISIAH RIDER and asking him what being a CANCER does for your career. Rocket River
If I was a Knicks fan, I have no idea what I'd do. We have our problems in Houston, but Yao and McGrady do what they should do for the money they're paid. Can you imagine having guys as talented as Marbury, Francis and Curry and still being as crappy as the Knicks? Curry has no motivation, Marbury doesn't understand basketball is a team sport, and Francis... well, I gave up on trying to figure out what his problem is a long time ago. Whatever it is, I hope he overcomes it in New York. I'd love to see Stevie both reach his potential and find team success.
More from the NJ Star-Ledger. http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/114214394034480.xml&coll=1 Marbury: I'll play my way Guard dislikes Brown's style Sunday, March 12, 2006 BY DAVID WALDSTEIN Star-Ledger Staff CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It's probably the last thing Larry Brown wants to hear from Stephon Marbury, but last night the point guard said his efforts to change his game have not produced positive results and he is planning to go back to being Starbury -- the shoot-first, attack-the rim, 20-point-a-game scorer who has been a missing person this year. Marbury said before last night's 116-109 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats that he tried to adjust to Brown's style of play this year, but it has not resulted in victories, and no one is happy. So he said he intends to go back to playing the way he always played, presumably next year, to a style that made him a multimillionaire superstar in the NBA -- a declaration that is sure to further frustrate Brown's attempts to remake Marbury into his kind of player. "I went into this year trying to do something, to put myself in a situation where we can win, Okay?" he said, "to help the team win games. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. So, what do I do now, as far as the way I play? I go back to playing like Stephon Marbury, aka Starbury. I haven't been Starbury this year. I've been some other dude this year." And that other dude in Marbury's No. 3 jersey is struggling so much that this could end up being Marbury's worst season. He went into last night's Battle of the Basement against the Bobcats averaging 17.0 points and 6.6 assists per game, both well below his career averages of 20.6 and 8.3. The 6.6 assists would qualify as his lowest averages in that category over his career. Last year he averaged 21.7 points and 8.1 assists. In nine previous seasons, Marbury has never averaged fewer than 7.6 assists per game, and hasn't had fewer than 8.1 since the 2000-01, season, when he averaged 7.6 with the Nets. This turbulent season he has often looked confused, and at times he has lacked his usual aggressiveness going to the hole. Part of that has been due to a shoulder injury he suffered Jan. 15, a sprain that caused him to miss 11 games. "All I know is, you've seen me play and you've seen how I've been playing (this year)," he said. "When you watch the games, that's not Stephon Marbury." Marbury, who still has $57 million owed to him through the 2009 season, acknowledged that his play this year has been so uncharacteristic that if he were a free agent this summer, he never would get the kind of maximum-dollar contract he signed back in 2003. "I'm going with the spirit of what they've asked me to do," Marbury said. "That's all I can do. I'm not the coach. I'm the player. But I know that if this was my contract year, and I went to any organization, based on how I played this year, and asked for the max, tell me what they would tell me. They'd say, 'That ain't happening.'" If Marbury, who had 18 points and seven assists last night, makes good on his declaration, it could add to any friction that has existed off and on all season between him and Brown. At times Brown has lauded Marbury for his play, including lately. He said recently that he thinks Marbury has played at times as well as he can, even though Marbury has obviously had much better seasons. Brown has fumed at Marbury's play at various times, and Marbury has bristled at Brown's repeated public criticisms of him. But if Brown feels Marbury is not playing according to his philosophy next year, it could make this season look like a picnic. The Knicks officially became the worst team in the league with last night's loss, falling to 17-44 while the Bobcats improved to 18-45, making them percentage points better, despite having a payroll less than three times smaller than the Knicks' ($123.5 million). The loss snapped the Knicks' two-game winning streak, but they almost made a remarkable comeback. Down by 15 with 5:37 to play, they cut the deficit to two when Marbury stole a pass from Raymond Felton and fed Steve Francis for a breakaway dunk that made it 109-107 with 1:13 left. But South Orange native Brevin Knight hit a jumper to make it 111-107 with 52 seconds to play, and after Marbury missed a jumper, Jumaine Jones hit a pair of free throws to get Charlotte's lead comfortably to six, 113-107, with 38.8 seconds to play. Charlotte was playing without Sean May and Emeka Okafor, both out with injuries. But Jones had 28 points and Knight, the former Seton Hall Prer star, had seven points and handed out 15 assists. The Knicks were led by Jalen Rose with 23 points.
I also remember the rumors saying he was going to come here. Then the Pistons job opened up and the rest is history.
I always said he would have been my first choice, and Van Gundy a close second. Now, I'm not so sure.
I never wanted Brown, but I did want Mike Dunleavy. Man, that would have been terrible too. Can't we just get a coach that will lead us to instant success? Detroit always seems to get coaches that improve on what the previous one did. How the heck do they do that?
Gee, didn't Stevie's number fall drastically too under his first year with Van Gundy? Looks like Starbury is going through the same thing. Maybe they brought in Stevie to coach Starbury on how to overcome it.
brown did win a ring after turning us down. not saying he would have here, but lets not act like he would have been a bad choice. now if your concern is would he have been here for the long-term, that's legit.
in all fairness, that team was put together to where any above average coach could have (coupled w/ the fact that they were playing a highly overrated team in the Finals) led them to the ring. I am pretty sure Carlisle himself could have led that team to the Finals.
This is what I really can't understand. When people are determined to not give a coach credit, all they have to say is "any above average coach could have...led them to the ring." Some people say the same about Phil Jackson. I don't like LB or Phil at all. I think both of them are jerks and I root against their teams. But the fact is they have very long and distinguished NBA careers that will put them into the Hall of Fame. Saying "any above average coach"...blah blah blah is just denying reality. Give credit where it is due and at least try to look at it objectively.
