<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Success seems to follow Stephon Marbury. As in, when Marbury is traded, his old team seems to enjoy a great deal more of it than when he played for it. It happened when the Nets traded him, and most recently, the Suns have enjoyed a great deal of regular-season success since trading Marbury to the Knicks a year ago. Marbury's Knicks tonight host Phoenix, the team with the second-best record in the NBA this season. Steve Nash is now the Suns' point guard, an MVP candidate, and is running the most exciting offense in the league, which is something Marbury, the self-proclaimed best point guard in the NBA, was never able to do with the Suns. </div> Link
I don't know how he CANNOT dispute his "loser" rep. Almost every team he has been on has been a losing team. Do you start to blame the teams or the player at this point. The PG position is the quarterback of all positions in the NBA. That position is a major factor on whether a team wins or not. Add in the fact that he has been the star player on each of the 4 teams he has been on and it makes the arguement even stronger. I guess this goes back to his saying that he is the best point guard in the NBA. How can you be the best point guard when you have only taken your team to the playoffs a handful of times?
I personally am very surprised that Marbury still has not learned to be a leader of a team that could simply will it to win, everygame. He was young in NJ, Minny, and Phoniex, and it is somwhat excusable for him not to know how to lead a team to victory. In NY, he still does not seem to have matured...he has, but not by the leaps and bounds that Isiah Thomas would want. He is a talented player who is interesting to watch, and it is not his passing ability, or scoring that is hindering his teams from getting more Ws than they should. I can only guess that he is doing somthing wrong, and that wrong is how he talks with his team mates, the coaches, etc. Maybe its even his work ethic, where to be as good as he is, he does not have to work as much, but not working too much is not what a leader should do...he should lead by example and work his arse off, even if it wont do any to help his game. If teamates see the time and effort to 'improve', then they will take thier time and effort to improve.
I've said it since he came to NY, the Knicks will never do anything special with him at the point. I'd rather see the Knicks trade Crawford and move Marbury to the 2 with Houston backing him up, as I just don't see him maturing into a team leader like Iverson did.
