Post#29 » by Phish Tank » Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:25 am
I was on this forum for a bulk of the Starbury/Marbury/Mebury/Methbury/Mountainbury/Vaselinebury days.
Tbh, I was honestly pumped when we acquired Marbury - and I still don't regret that trade 16+ years later. Anyone around during that time remembers a sub-athletic and uninspiring team.... yes, Allan Houston wasn't that inspiring anymore except for his albatross contract.
The Marbury trade was a complete 180. A 26-27 year old star PG in his prime that's equally exciting too.... I was pumped. That 03-04 season was very promising. Sad part initially was that Marbury never got to play with a healthy Houston beyond a half-season at most. Had Houston been active during the 2004 playoffs, the Knicks might have won a game in the series. But that team was mostly a bunch of oldies, Marbury, Sweetney, maybe Tiny Tim, etc. Isiah knew the team needed to become younger, athletic, exciting. Marbury was step 1. However, his team building after that season blew.
The Jamal Crawford trade was interesting, yet he was probably one of Marbury's best teammates during the Knick run. But someone miscast during his time in NY (Craw - even Marbury). Unfortunately, Marbury got in his own way after proclaiming he was the best PG in NY and that ultimately led to Lenny Wilkens demise (which sucked because he was probably the best coach).
The Larry Brown era was the beginning of the end. LB wanted Marbury to become more like Billups than like AI.... which probably was the right trajectory for Starbury's career. But a clash of egos and IT's poor roster construction (leading up to the Curry trade, Francis trade, etc.) made the marriage irreconcilable. Couple that with the Anucha Browne Sanders lawsuit and BAM.
Marbury's ego got in the way in NY. It also did in all his stops before NY. That's the biggest tragedy of it all. And that's why his relationship with Knick fans and the NY media soured.