(Larry, shown with his daughter yesterday in Sag Harbor, NY, doing his best to pretend he’s not in horrible physical pain)

With the Knicks’ hiring of Larry Brown seemingly a foregone conclusion — why offer a 5 year deal to a guy who has never demonstrated he’ll stick around that long? — the NY Post’s Mike Vaccaro predicts that Stephon Marbury (who has moved around almost as much as Larry, just not by choice) will be on the block again.

The ex-point guard who runs the Knicks and the ex-point guard who’ll coach them will have to have some long, hard discussions about the present point guard who plays for the Knicks.

And that dialogue will not be pretty.

Because Isiah Thomas is already on record vehemently denying that he will ever shop around Stephon Marbury, his neighbor, his protege, and the signature acquisition of his tenure to date – at least until Brown affixes his signature to the bottom of a contract.

And Larry Brown was just as adamant about his opinion of Marbury, if you judged by the way he so often squirmed last summer watching Marbury conduct his business at the Olympics in Athens, if you judge by the kind of point guard that has thrived under Brown through the years, a category that can best be described thusly:

AntiSteph.

Brown is the new savior, Marbury the old one. In a collision of this magnitude, new beats old every time. Which means if and when Brown does assume control of the Knicks’ reins, Marbury will have to completely transform himself if he wishes to keep playing for his hometown team. And since Marbury has steadfastly refused to change his ways for anyone, there’s only one place the smart money can be on this one.