From ESPN.com, following the Knicks’ Wednesday shootaround.
“I think it’s personal now,” Marbury told ESPN.com’s Chris Sheridan, reacting to comments made by Brown on Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s about basketball anymore. Now it’s to the point where he’s putting his 30-year career against my 10-year career. You know, coach is a great coach is what everyone says. We’re supposed to be better than what we are. Did it happen now? No.”
He also said Brown’s comments on Tuesday — in which he put up his record against Marbury’s, pointing out he’d never left a team in worse shape than when he took over, and asked reporters to compare respective track records — were a sign of insecurity on Brown’s part.
“He always crosses the line,” Marbury told Sheridan. “That’s not nothing new. Certain coaches deal with certain things certain ways, and he handles his things through the media as opposed to sitting down and talking with people. And still, if you sit down and you talk with coach, it’s liable to get back to everybody, so you’re really not safe there either.”
Brown’s reply?
“So, you’re the best guard in the league and the team is 17-45, yeah, it’s the coach’s fault,” Brown told Sheridan. “I don’t know why you play a team sport and not be concerned about making your teammates better and helping your team win games. That’s the only thing that really matters, and if you’re the best player, surely you’re going to have some effect on the game’s outcome.”
Incredibly, I agree with both of these jokers. Brown’s public critiques of Marbury are hardly constructive. Marbury’s legendary insistence that he was the league’s top point guard is going to haunt him until the end of time (or at least until he helps a team win a playoff series, which ever comes first).
Presumably, an organization with a GM that wasn’t facing the distractions of a sexual harrassment suit would let both the player and coach know that this sort of thing is a public embarrassment and they should just give us a break.
And LB thought AI was an A-hole.
Coach Play-the-Right-Way is more right than Starbury, but as a Pacers fan, let me clarify LB’s comment about never leaving a team in worse shape. LB’s last year in Indiana was a disaster, missing the playoffs and generally rubbing everyone the wrong way. Though the Pacers got back to EC final-losing level after Larry Bird replaced Brown, thus vindicating him somewhat, Brown always eventually wears his players down. It’s just that in New York, with already grumpy and unmotivated players in place, he’s set a land-speed record for doing so.
well put, Bob. And while technically, Larry can take credit for coaching the Pistons to a title (seeing as they weren’t defending champs, I suppose that’s improvement), Detroit are arguably a better club under Flip Saunders than they were under either campaign with Brown.