Marbury Running His Mouth…Maybe This Time It’s True.
Marbury speaking to the Daily News:
”He doesn’t teach defense,” Marbury said. “He teaches offense. (Jeff) Van Gundy teaches defense. (The D’Antoni system) doesn’t work in New York. Not in the East. You have to have a team that dives for balls and takes the 3 when nobody expects you to take the 3. You have to be inside the fans’ minds and that’s what they want. There’s knowledgeable people in the arena. They’re talking to you while you’re shooting a jump shot.” […] “It’s just a matter of time,” Marbury said. “That’s all I got to stay about D’Antoni’s situation. I don’t pay attention to his coaching. It hasn’t changed since he won 50 games or since all the how many games he’s lost here. If he had different pieces, he’s a very effective coach. But without any players that play with the realm of how he coaches the game, it will never be. “It’s a matter of time,” Marbury added. “It’s a countdown now. He put a countdown on his head. Now (the fans) know we’re never going to win a championship like this.”
Marbury actually has a point here. Personally, I don’t like D’Antoni’s coaching style. It’s been painful watching the Knicks for the past three years. He practically teaches cherry picking in the NBA. He doesn’t have any defensive philosophy and pretty much doesn’t believe in it. In this conference, you can’t win with no defense. There are too many better teams than the Knicks for them to completely disregard it as a whole. In the game last night, it wasn’t fun watching everyone on the Nuggets take uncontested shots all game long. That’s not how basketball is supposed to be played. Think about the Knicks in the 90’s – Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy. This guys lead the Knicks to the NBA Finals because they taught the importance of playing physical defense. Those teams didn’t have the best scorers in the league, but that some guys that were tough as nails (John Starks, Larry Johnson, Charles Oakley, Derek Harper, etc.) If the Knicks have another shit year, there’s a strong chance D’Antoni will be fired. I would have no problem bringing back Van Gundy to New York.
5 BOROUGH SPORTS 
November 18, 2010 at 10:42 am
Marbury makes a strong point, I hope he’s wrong but I can’t argue with his reasoning.
January 10, 2011 at 2:21 am
[…] season. They are seven games over .500 after starting the season 3-8. Back in mid-November, I was calling for D’Antoni’s head. Now they are sitting pretty for a solid playoff spot. Let’s let the team regroup and focus […]
March 29, 2011 at 12:58 am
[…] made a full circle. In the beginning, the Knickerbockers were awful starting the season off 3-8. I was calling for D’Antoni’s head by mid-November. But then Amare had his 30+ points per game streak. They climbed all the way up to seven games over […]