Stephon marburys life.?

"In terms of a pure absolutely great point guard," the old captain said, "(Marbury) could be the next guy after Clyde....I don't think we've had one in Clyde's category. We've got one now that can be as good as Clyde and I think he wants to be as good as Clyde and that's a great thing to have."



Walt Frazier was traded by the Knicks eight months after Marbury was born. The city with more point guards than taxi cabs had to wait until Thursday night for the home team to hire one good enough to be the star of a championship team.



It took Isiah Thomas, best little man in NBA history, to find a little man with this kind of game. The people criticizing this deal for the salary-cap consequences need to get a clue: the Knicks just unloaded a pile of junk to land one of the game's 10 best players, in his prime. Thomas has poster-dunked Scott Layden into oblivion; Isiah's creative thinking has pumped so much life into a marquee franchise the cowering Layden helped reduce to a mismanaged mom-and-pop store. (Related story: Knicks pry Marbury from Phoenix)



"If you ask me whether I'd rather have Stephon Marbury or Jason Kidd," said one prominent Western Conference official, "I'm taking Marbury because he's younger. People say he's a pain in the rear, but does it sound like Kidd's a joy to behold? I hear Marbury is selfish. If he's so selfish, how in the world does he get all those assists?



"The kid loves the game. He studies it, talks it, knows it. You don't know how many pros don't even know who they're playing the next night. So I think this trade makes the Knicks better than the Nets. Of the 46 games they have left, they'll win no less than 30. They'll make the Eastern Conference finals. I mean, Isiah hit a grand slam with nobody on base and I still don't know how he did it."



Forget what you saw in Cleveland Tuesday night, when Marbury was handcuffed by the newness of it all, a chest cold and the uncertainty over whether he would even play. Remember the stories he told yesterday in practice. Like the one about his first flight as a Knick, a flight he spent watching film. Marbury saw something that intrigued him and immediately huddled with Allan Houston to talk strategy.



"I know I've got five assists coming to (Houston)," Marbury said. "I've got three or four to Kurt Thomas, and four or five to Keith (Van Horn)."



Does that sound like some mad gunner who's about to World B. Free the Knicks back into the lottery?



"I'm definitely misunderstood as far as a person who's selfish," Marbury said. "I'm the only player other than Oscar Robertson to average 20 points and 8 assists, but people still call me selfish and say I don't pass the ball. I don't understand how you can get eight assists and be selfish."



He was selfish back in the day. Too selfish to accept the fact that Garnett would be Minnesota's main man at $126 million, and that the point guard would have to accept sidekick status at a lower wage. Marbury was too selfish to accept all that losing in New Jersey, and all that passive resistance from Van Horn. He was too selfish to stop himself from saying those horrid Knicks point guards would "never, ever, never" win a championship.



"I've matured a lot," Marbury said. "I see the game totally different and life totally different."



He sees, in his words, "definitely the most talented team I've played on." But this isn't Camelot just yet. The Marbury-Van Horn relationship bears watching, no matter how often they say they've kissed and made up. Figure on Van Horn getting shipped out this season or next; either way, this is Stephon's show for keeps.



He is the golden child of New York's first basketball family. Five Marbury boys played Division I ball, and Stephon's cousin, Sebastian Telfair, is busy taking the Lincoln High dynasty to new heights.



Hence the tattooed message racing across Marbury's left arm: Coney Island's Finest. They all grew up playing ball on the Surfside court the neighborhood knows as "The Garden." In those playground games, Marbury said he wanted "to have the passes like Magic (Johnson) and to be able to score like Isiah."



But there was no mistaking the team he played for. "I was always a Knick," Marbury said.



He was a Knick when he won Lincoln's 1995 city title on the Garden floor. Eight years later, New York gets to celebrate a prodigal point guard who finally came home.



Ian O'Connor also writes for The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News











soo 15 years ago he was in coney island playin ball woww .i cant believe it it seems like yestoday. And now 11f apt is lived by somone else and now look at him so rich . He was a regular person lookin for a dream damnn . Do any body know starbury since childhood ?Stephon marburys life.?
Why rant and rave about such an underachieving point guard on a less than mediocre team? Great what he did with selling his shoe at a very cheap price so blacks in the inner city could afford him, but thats the only good thing he's done for basketball (to help others and not just himself)Stephon marburys life.?
lemme finish your question for you.



"stephon marbury's life should.....end"



most selfish player in basketball. single handedly ruined the knicks. hurry up and get shot. hes a sell out, got rich and then changed.Stephon marburys life.?
the knicks had to choose between kidd or marbury right? well that was a stupid choice