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**USSKittyHawk** · 11-16-2006, 09:28 AM

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LET'S see if we get this straight: Stephon Marbury says he is now passing the ball because this is what he wants to do, as opposed to last year, when it was what Larry Brown wanted him to do.

"It's different ... I'm doing these things by choice," said Marbury, a distinction lost to the rest of us when he shot the ball only 25 times in his first three Garden contests. Hardly by coincidence, the Knicks lost all three.

Last night, Marbury hit 6 of 16 shots, had four assists, took his share of duty that helped hold Gilbert Arenas to 5-for-19 and the Knicks beat the Wizards, 102-82. It was more in the direction of Isiah Thomas's plan when he acquired Marbury 208 games and 133 losses (.361) ago, but still short of satisfactory to even Marbury's great enabler.

"I look at the stat sheet and see Marbury had two free throws and that's not good enough," said Thomas - whose team, while never really threatened, put the game away with Nate Robinson, not Marbury, on the floor.

This was more food for thought - albeit half-baked by anyone envisioning Robinson as a point guard - for Marbury's critics, who booed him on early-game misses. But seats in what are now almost entirely empty sections are no longer going to be sold by Marbury, rather by Robinson and David Lee, two bench players.

Meanwhile, Marbury is a two-guard playing the one for lack of alternatives, as Brown pointed last season after Marbury asked to switch.

That was while he and Brown were on speaking terms. Also, before the inmates took over the asylum, Jim Dolan effectively handing them the keys when he chose Marbury with three years and $63 million remaining on his contract over Brown and the four years and $41 million left on his.

Never mind Marbury has never won a playoff series - or worse, has seen two teams that traded him get better, once spared his sour puss. Thomas is trying a velvet shoehorn to force the square peg into the round hole, where Brown's hammer failed. But Marbury is what he is, both in personality and skills.

"I adjust to the game," he shrugged about his stepped-up shooting last night. But whether it be for a coach he likes or a coach he doesn't, an effective shoot-pass balance has repeatedly proved to be beyond Marbury's long-term grasp.

He has lost enough, and had his reputation impugned enough, that intellectually, he grasps the need to share ball. Nevertheless, all those Starbury trips down the lane with an expired dribble have always been indicative of shortage of good instincts. At least Marbury had the iron body to go with his iron head, but now foot problems are beginning to intrude. Age 30 is only three months away, no time for an old dog to grasp new tricks.

Of course, he is not the only career underachiever Thomas was authorized to try to change with Dolan's wild checkbook, only their poster child. Such is life for the star of a bad team, a failed hometown Messiah always getting it worse.

But that's down the list of Marbury's problems, and an insult to the intelligence of the fans besides. They understand by now, better than Thomas, what a missed opportunity was the chance to draft Marcus Williams with pick No. 22. And that the Knicks are not turning any corner with Marbury as lead guard.

The best the dwindling customers can do is urge him to keep shooting. If he does, the Knicks will win 37 games, unfortunate enough for Thomas to keep his job. But with Marbury's contract down to two years by next season, perhaps another team will want him as the shooting guard he is and put him in a new setting with a role he can comfortably handle. For the Knicks' sake, and his, Marbury needs to play elsewhere.

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**cpawfan** · 11-16-2006, 09:33 AM

There are so many wrong opinions in that, I don't know where to start

**USSKittyHawk** · 11-16-2006, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpawfan

There are so many wrong opinions in that, I don't know where to start

Come on post, I need something to read while I'm at work.

**Truknicksfan** · 11-16-2006, 07:25 PM

I red this article at work (Yes I was working hard rofl) and it was a bad read then and its a bad read now. Someone had nothing else to write about it seems.

I mean when theres nothing else to write about in New York......why not just take the safe side and bash Marbury or a-rod.

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