Tuesday marked the end of era for New York City basketball. The overpaid and overrated Stephon Marbury – who could not even lead his team to a single playoff victory during his unimpressive five-year stint with the Knicks – has ‘left the building’.
The Knicks and Marbury agreed to part ways via a buyout that now allows the 32-year-old point guard to join the World Champion Boston Celtics, who have verbally promised him a roster spot.
One might say this is a ‘win-win’ situation for both the Knicks and Celtics.
The Knicks are doing their hardest to revert back to their winning ways during their two championships in 1970 and 1973 and the proud Patrick Ewing era of the 80s and 90s.
The Celtics already have it all in the form of the ‘big three’ in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. The C’s are currently pretty solid at point guard, so they don’t need a washed-up talent like Marbury on their team… But, who knows… the spirit of a winning team has been known to revitalize loser players, so maybe ‘Starbury’ could prove useful to the Celtics as they try to repeat their title…
Best Point Guard in the NBA?
Not long ago Marbury said he was the best point guard in the Nation Basketball Association and, ergo, the world. Suffice it to say, Marbury’s misguided statement was both absurd and laugh provoking when it was stated four years ago… But in hindsight looking back on the cocky pseudo-star, his words were pathetic.
True, Marbury is a former All-Star and still has a killer jump shot and cross over dribble. His lingering skills notwithstanding, Stephon’s present tragedy is that by today’s NBA standards – Lebron James, Dwayne Wade – he sucks.
Young and the Selfish
He entered the league in 1996 with so much hope and promise. He and Allan Iverson were the top two point guards in the draft, and both were poised to make some serious damage in the NBA. Marbury was also a part of the prolific New York City ‘street ball’ scene where he had displayed NBA-quality skills even as an adolescent.
So what went wrong? He was drafted 4th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks but then traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the draft rights tot Ray Allen to give the NBA’s newest and brightest star Kevin Garnett a wing-man to push the franchise into playoff contention.
Marbury and Garnett proved to be the ‘dynamic duo’ that everyone had hoped, with Marbury wheeling and dealing and Garnett dunking on anyone who got in his way.
In their second and third seasons together, they soared to the playoffs, and if it weren’t for the fact that the late 90s was one of the NBA’s most competitive periods ever, boasting perennial great teams like the Bulls, Knicks, Jazz, and Rockets, youngsters Marbury and Garnett almost certainly would have made some heavy post-season noise.
The duo was destined for greatness, but it quickly became apparent that Marbury had an ego that was almost as impressive as his ankle-cracking crossover dribble. Marbury wanted more money and didn’t want to be Garnett’s sidekick: he wanted to be ‘the man’.
Not the man
The thing is that under the best of conditions and with the best of attitudes, in no world would it have been possible for Marbury to be ‘the man’ in the NBA – and truly this is no slight to him at all. A point guard is and always has been about passing, making other players around you better, and, when your number is called, making tough shots. Marbury needed someone like Garnett, just like John Stockton needed Karl Malone, just as Gary Payton need Shawn Kemp. But the point is even a sport like basketball that is so focused on the individual is ultimately a team sport – even Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen to win a Championship and we shouldn’t forget the other superb players that contributed to the Chicago Bulls 72-win season in 1997.
Traded
So what happened? Marbury went to New Jersey Nets and then the Phoenix Suns for big money. He played well enough to earn himself a few All-Star spots and for pundits to consider him an upper-echelon point guard. But Marbury put his brattish, me-first tendencies on open display and was never able to make his team even slightly competitive with the NBA’s big guns.
Now-coach of the Knicks Mike D’Antoni took his success in the Italian Basketball League to Marbury’s Sun in 2003. With D’Antoni’s European basketball roots he knew that no player, even the bigheaded sorts like Marbury, is more important that the team as a whole. D’Antoni traded Marbury traded to the lack-lustre Knicks that season, and New York accepted him with open arms thinking that the solution to their problems was sign the NBA’s biggest prima donna to their squad.
Marbury sucking it up in New York
As history will tell us D’Antoni replaced Marbury with Steve Nash, a team-orientated point guard who had to that point enjoyed a good career, but one that paled in comparison to the brilliance he brought to the NBA that season and for years to come.
While Marbury and the Knicks were sucking, Nash was bringing the Suns to the top of the Western Conference with his high-octane, circus-like offence. As any fan will tell you, Nash was as fun to watch that season as any team in NBA history with him pulling out trick passes would have even impressed Hall-of-Famer Pete Maravich.
Marbury wasn’t even an All-Star during these seasons while Nash had the distinction of being the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player.
Poor Starbury…
Are we being too harsh on ‘Starbury’ for his failure to make the Knicks even a mediocre team? God knows no one likes losing and we could argue that he never really had a descent supporting cast… But even more than his uninspired play, New York will remember Marbury as a selfish and very poor leader. Hating Marbury comes very naturally to most, so just go with it. I personally will be interested in seeing what the Celtics can do with him…