Of course, the man pictured to your right isn’t one of them. The Knicks had their first practice the other day, and surprise, surprise… Stephon Marbury is happier with the way things are going under new head coach Isiah Thomas. Here’s what Starbury the Great had to say about the new system:
“It’s more free flowing and free going,” Marbury said of Thomas’ first practice. “You don’t have somebody who couldn’t handle the ball telling you, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that.’”
The guy who “couldn’t handle the ball” to whom Stephon is referring is, of course, Larry Brown. The same Larry Brown who, by the way, won a gold medal in 1964. Was a three-time all-Star in the ABA. Holds the single game ABA record for assists with 23. And is the ABA’s all-time career assists leader. That Larry Brown.
Meanwhile, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News speculates on what might’ve gone down had Quentin Richardson and Jamal Crawford been called to testify in Larry Brown’s arbitration hearing in New York with NBA commissioner David Stern.
Under oath, Crawford would paint a very different picture of the head coach the Knicks are trying to portray as devious and borderline crazy. Crawford would admit that while in fact Brown was critical of him, the Knicks guard flourished under Brown and enjoyed the best season of his career. And Crawford would recall that Brown eventually called him “the most improved player I’ve ever coached.”
Richardson’s testimony would be more powerful since the veteran small forward would tell Stern that Brown was only trying to help the team by riding Stephon Marbury with tough love. And yes, Richardson would admit that police had to be called to the Knicks’ training facility in Greenburgh last January because Richardson refused to leave the building until he could fight Marbury.
Neither Crawford nor Richardson was summoned to New York and put in the awkward position of having to defend his former coach in front of his current employer. Instead, a couple of Brown’s pets now tip-toe around the issue of the Hall of Fame coach while trying to adhere to the organization’s unofficial policy of “If You Have Nothing Bad To Say About Larry Keep It To Yourself.”
“We’re not supposed to talk about Larry,” Richardson said yesterday.
Imagine that… guys who want to be coached. Hell, it sounds like they even liked it. I hope they enjoyed their time becoming better basketball players, because that’s almost certainly coming to an end now. It’s hard to grow as a player in the “watch Stephon Marbury shoot and tell him how great he is” system.
And the fact that Quentin Richardson wanted to fight Stephon Marbury that badly makes him just about my favorite NBA player. I vow right now that at any point in the future when I play an NBA video game, I will always, always, without exception, trade for Quentin Richardson.
unc_samurai Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 7:49 am
Nice youch with the ‘dickhead’ tag, MJD.
If the Knicks’ record gets worse this year, they will need a theme song much like Guiding Light. All Knicks practices will be televised from 2-3PM every weekday afternoon.
“The part of Isiah Thomas is being played today by a rotted log.”
Mark Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Well said, MJD.
I hope the Knicks lose every game they play this year simply because everyone needs to learn once and for all (and why they haven’t learned by this point is beyond me)…
STOP GIVING ISIAH THOMAS WORK!
RyanBeingManny Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 9:23 am
The thing is, it is almost certain to improve, and probably by double digits. And everyone will say that Isiah knew what he was doing, that maybe Brown was over-thinking his post. And the Knicks will never win 40 games again.
Casey Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 10:18 am
The first rule of Larry Brown is…You don’t talk about Larry Brown.
Marcel Mutoni Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 11:14 am
obviously they’ll improve, and Isiah will keep his job. He’s like Jason; you can’t kill him
Jeff Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
I want to echo some of the statements above: The Knicks will improve this year and it’s not going to be a good thing for the immediate future of the franchise. Thomas will loosen the reigns on Marbury and Francis, the two shoot-first PG’s will have better statistical years than last year, and Thomas will be retained as coach because the Knicks’s record will improve by about 10 games. Nobody will have learned to work together as a team.
On the other hand, Channing and Curry should see more minutes and I believe they will make significant contributions.
I’m a Celtics fan but, somehow, this situation has been so royally screwed up by the Knicks organization that they’ve catured the attention of all basketball fans….truly a remarkable trainwreck.
syzygy Says:
October 7th, 2006 at 1:08 am
From the Daily News article:
There has even been talk of including Richardson in a deal for Philadelphia’s Chris Webber.
I TOTALLY want to see this happen. I used to be a die hard Knicks fan, but now, I want to see Thomas fail as miserably as possible and spend as much money as he can.
Jake Says:
October 8th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I dunno, I still think that Marbury could take Larry Brown one on one. I mean Brown doesn’t even have his own shoe.
Lucas Says:
October 9th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Q is the isht. I was sad when the Suns traded him.