Mike D'Antoni, the supposed savior of the Knicks, is bringing more drama to the Knicks organization (from the NY Daily News):
Mike D'Antoni pulled off a rare feat on Tuesday by calling out Eddy Curry for being out of shape and unproductive and creating his own backcourt controversy. Even at his Machiavellian best, Jeff Van Gundy couldn't stir things up like D'Antoni did.
Everyone gives D'Antoni a ton of credit for what he did in Phoenix, much of deserved. However, he never had much trouble in terms of rotation juggling (save for Barbosa and Diaw when they went schitzo), because the lineup was so codified. What are you going to do, bench Steve Nash for Marcus Banks? Bench Amare in favor of Kurt Thomas? New York is a different story, as practically his whole lineup is a who's who of overpaid, underachieving big names. Pretending as though the Knicks were awful last year because of their game strategy is asinine... they need to a full overhaul of their personnel, which is imminent. However, in the meantime, D'Antoni seems determined to screw with the heads of his headcases as much as he can. Not a day goes by that he doesn't insinuate that Eddy Curry is a fat lard with no work ethic. Then, after relegating Marbury to the bench at first, now he's changing his tune and the player whose season highlight last year was bragging about banging an intern in a van during his coach's sexual harassment trial is now the starter. Why? Nobody really knows, especially Jamal Crawford. It's not as though Crawford hasn't been playing well...
Crawford and Stephon Marbury are rivals as much as they are teammates. They are no longer close, so D'Antoni's decision to start Marbury, the locker-room outcast, instead of Crawford, Mr.Popularity among the Knicks, only raises the stakes. It also created some unrest in the locker room. The dead giveaway was Crawford moping around and receiving a pep talk from Quentin Richardson.
This seems about right!
Even if Crawford is the starting shooting guard on opening night, D'Antoni has sent him a clear message that he could be replaced at any moment by Marbury, who reiterated that he is, in fact, "a starter." For three weeks, D'Antoni seemed to be taking a firm stand regarding Marbury's role with the Knicks and Marbury had essentially accepted that he would become a backup. Now he's probably thinking what D'Antoni is thinking: how can my best guard not start?
Strange that a coach known for his free-wheeling style on the court would be such a micromanager off of it... but so long as the Knicks are a laughingstock I support every headgame he plays.Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2008/10/ny-knicks-still-train-wreck.html
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