Someone in the Media with a different take on the Steph Saga

richtree

Rotation player
Sabotage? Mike D's Starbury stance gets downright mean<TABLE class=storyHeader style="BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%" target="_blank" 8450.jpg? authors-318x86 images images.sportsline.com http:><TBODY><TR><TD class=storyInfo style="PADDING-LEFT: 95px" vAlign=top>Nov. 16, 2008
By Gregg Doyel
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Some people, smart people, stick up for whales or eagles or Sarah Palin. Helping the hapless is a sign of strength. Plus it's easy. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Me, I'm weak. And stupid. Must be, because I'm sticking up for Stephon Marbury. [/FONT]
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</TD><TD width=15></TD></TR><TR><TD width=220>Is Stephon Marbury serving time for past transgressions? (Getty Images) </TD><TD width=15></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Shocks the heck out of me, too, but here I am, and I'll tell you what put me here: A story last week from New York that described Marbury sitting on the Knicks' bench -- not in a Knicks jersey but in a rugby shirt, because Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni is willing to trot out Marbury like a show dog but won't let him play or even practice. As if Marbury's a contagious disease that could be passed from teammate to teammate.
And maybe he is. Maybe Marbury is every bit the bad teammate, and bad guy, that D'Antoni is making him out to be.
My question, my problem, is not with the discipline in this instance, but with the disciplinarian.
Why Mike D'Antoni?
Why him?
Near as I can tell, Marbury hasn't done anything to D'Antoni, certainly not since D'Antoni joined the Knicks. If Marbury has done something to D'Antoni, it's time for D'Antoni to come clean. If not, the Knicks could cut Marbury loose. Release him. Buy out his contract. Something. The longer this goes on, the more D'Antoni looks like a bully. He's starting to make Stephon Marbury a (gulp) sympathetic figure.
Don't tell me D'Antoni is keeping quiet to protect Marbury's trade value, because benching him has already ruined it. Marbury's history -- losing has followed him like stink -- hasn't helped, either. He lost with the T-Wolves. He lost with the Nets. The Suns didn't become a dominant team until they unloaded him midway through the 2003-04 season. Marbury went to the Knicks, where he has lost and lost and lost. He has lost for coach Lenny Wilkens. He has lost for Herb Williams. He has lost for Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas.
He will not lose for Mike D'Antoni. D'Antoni won't allow it, and the Marbury-less Knicks are in fact winning without their highest-salaried player. So maybe this whole thing is supposed to make sense to me: Marbury is a bad guy or a bad teammate or both, and D'Antoni is making a stand. Maybe D'Antoni should be celebrated.
But I can't celebrate this, just like I couldn't celebrate the idea of a teenager kicking an annoying cat. This cat, this Stephon Marbury, is self-centered and irritating -- but he isn't malicious. He isn't Latrell Sprewell choking a coach or saying he can't feed his family on a meager millionaire's salary. He isn't Bruce Bowen kicking opposing players between the legs. He isn't Chris Andersen getting banished from the league for using drugs, or J.R. Smith getting involved in an on-court brawl, an off-court brawl and a traffic accident that left a man dead.
All of those players, with the exception of Sprewell, are playing in the NBA this season. Marbury's not.
Marbury is guilty, and has always been guilty, of only one thing: He's all about Marbury. He walks that way. He talks that way. He certainly plays that way. And if you think that's enough of a crime to be publicly emasculated, as D'Antoni has publicly emasculated Marbury, fine. Send D'Antoni a card. Tell him how strong he is.

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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Me, I look at D'Antoni and I see phoniness and even some cowardice. In the preseason D'Antoni met with all his players and told them to get into shape. Only players who busted their ass on their own time would be able to play on the new coach's dime, so Marbury busted his ass. He came into camp ready to run.



Center Eddy Curry didn't. He came to camp out of shape, got sick and then injured and was inactive to start the season. Last week D'Antoni activated Curry even though he remains fat, out of shape and too injured to play.
Marbury, healthy and presumably in some of the best shape of his life, sat on the bench in his rugby shirt.
From the outside, which is where I like to be when it comes to the snake pit that is Madison Square Garden, D'Antoni looks to be punishing Marbury for his sins against the coaching profession. With Marbury as their starting point guard, the following coaches have lost their jobs: Don Casey (2000) with New Jersey; Scott Skiles (2002) and Frank Johnson ('04) with Phoenix; and Don Chaney (later in 2004), Wilkens ('05), Williams ('05), Brown ('06) and Thomas ('08) with the Knicks.
D'Antoni refuses to be next. Understandable. But also a little bit, um, cowardly.
Did you see A Few Good Men? I'm reminded of the scene where attorney Tom Cruise pokes some holes in colonel Jack Nicholson's puffed shirt by wondering why, if Nicholson's orders are always followed, did Nicholson fear for a certain soldier's safety after Nicholson had ordered the rest of the base to leave that soldier alone?
It was a great question, and Nicholson had no answer.
D'Antoni isn't puffed up like Nicholson, but at the end of the day, the Knicks are his team. He is the coach. The leader. The man. So I guess my question of Mike D'Antoni is this: If you're as good as you're supposed to be, why is your most talented player on the bench in a rugby shirt?
If D'Antoni was trying to humble Stephon Marbury, the message has been delivered. If D'Antoni wanted to humiliate him, well, he has done that too.

Which means Marbury isn't the only bad guy in street clothes on the Knicks bench.
 

DaTPRiNCE

The Knicks are Back
good article nice find.....i agree with the whole D'Antoni benching Marbury part...why..he has np reason to bench him so why do it if marbury had done anyting trust he he woulda said it by now...marbury been clean so theres no reason to not play him....and i know this for a fact:a couple of the losses we had woulda been wins with him(Bucks, and Mavs)..with him we woulda been 8-2...without him were 6-4 and only gonna need him more as the season gets tougher...
 

richtree

Rotation player
It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with Steph sitting....


I think the omnious Donnie Walsh is the one who looks bad here...


Walsh has 1 major job....restore Knicks to power....but he had 2 minor jobs this year....

1. To have a speedy end to the humorous stories....

2. To settle Steph situation quiclkly and not make the organization look like a bad place (to be a part of)

.....he really isn't doing a great job so far....and he seems to just agree to whatever MIKEY D says....


I wanna watch thursdays interview in walsh to see where his minds at...


peace dunns...


tree
 

DaTPRiNCE

The Knicks are Back
i know i dont matter if i agree or not im just saying either way whether your for or agaist steph its unfair what happened an dont seem like theres a good reason

i wanna see the Walsh interview as welll, but dont think so i ome back from college at like 7-8pm so my days almost gone....but he has a few trades he's woking on i know that he's just waiting for a good one to pull the trigger....Zach ould get us some good players now in return
 

richtree

Rotation player
Yeh, Prince I was talking to the masses when I was saying "agree or Not"


not to you personally....


props for college kid
 

DaTPRiNCE

The Knicks are Back
thanks man...2 more years after this one cant wait to finish lmao...way too busy loll...college work chillin loll....at least i only got 3 days a week college loll....but yea i want some deals to get done soon this waiting thing is hard loll
 

Oldtimer

Rotation player
Don't Blame D'Antoni

Neither D'Antoni nor Walsh have any issues with Stephon. D'Antoni has continually said that Steph has done nothing wrong and has recently described him as a "good guy."

The most rational thing for Steph and the Knicks is a buy-out. Steph has been stubborn and so, it seems, has Dolan. He does have issues with Steph.

Steph will be bought out, perhaps even for the full amount of his contract. I suspect he is more stubborn than Dolan. But I am convinced that Dolan is responsible from the Knicks' side -- not Walsh or D"Antoni -- for delaying the inevitable and keeping Steph in street clothes.
 

knicklover

Benchwarmer
From the very beginning of the management change I thought it was very likely that Marbury was going to get bought out. It also obviously wasn't out of line for the Knicks to try to encourage him to get into his best possible shape because any potential trade value was tied to him demonstrating he could still play after last year's surgery. Finally, if you are holding out hope of a trade instead of a straight buyout, you actually have to allow him to play in pre-season to demonstrate that he CAN STILL PLAY. THere was nothing wrong with the Knick's strategy for trying to deal with the situation EXCEPT that a trade was probably never a realistic option to begin with. They should have realized that and just bought him out before the season really started and gave him his freedom. It doesn't really appear they were honest with him by telling him that he was getting a fresh start. He was never getting a fresh start. They played him like a fiddle to get him to work hard, get in shape, stay quiet, and be a model teamate for just long enough to give them some small chance of trading him. That didn't work so they are buying him out, but they wasted a lot of his time and probably hurt him because I think he still really wants to be a Knick.
 
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