They Deserve Each other

They do. The whole lot of them. Dolan, Isiah and Marbury. They have created this monster and it appears that it finally could be coming to an end. These three men are the faces of this Knick run of the past four years. This utterly pathetic run of horrid play on the court, disputes off the court and front office ineptitude of comic proportions.

When looking at this specific Marbury/Isiah dispute part of me feels that it is about time. For too long Isiah has protected Marbury while he has not performed up to expectations on the court. Everyone remembers Isiah as a great player and an even greater leader. A player with true grit and heart. Those are two adjectives that have never been uttered in the same paragraph, let a lone sentence as Steph Marbury. Yet Isiah always defended him. He took his side against Larry Brown. He sided with him against the media as well on numerous occasions. Isiah frustrated so many fans and NBA experts by siding with a guy who may have had as much talent as himself, but was the opposite kind of player. Isiah was the definition of a winner (and sore loser), while Marbury would put up numbers (only him and Oscar Robertson have averaged over 20 points and 8 dimes per game over their career) while never getting out of the first round of the playoffs. He is a prototype coach killer and TEAM killer.

At this point though Isiah is finally doing what he should have done years ago. Giving Stephon some tough love. Not standing by him just because he felt that he needed to justify is signature trade. It is too little, too late. So much damage has been done to this Knick franchise on so many different levels that this should be the first of a series of very tough and embarrassing situations in order to break up this team from the top down. Steph is gone. I don't care is he returns to the team, in all intents and purposes he is out of here. The team will struggle on the court and then Dolan will have to finally place some accountability on Isiah. The dire state of the Knicks has reached such epic proportions that if Dolan does not act prudently on this the fans may actually rip up the Garden floor.

For the future, who knows. I say bring in a new GM and let him find his own coach. There is a lot of talent on this roster but it is just not the right atmosphere for success, plus the players do not seem to fit together. With the right moves (find a great shooter and true point guard to start) the Knicks can be good in a short amount of time around David Lee, Zach Randolph, Ronaldo Balkman and others. At this point more than ever though Dolan needs to think about where the franchise once was and the depths to which it has plummeted. He owes it to the Walt Fraziers, the Willis Reeds, the Patrick Ewings and the Charles Oakleys to end this nonsense now. And if that is not enough, then he owes it to the fans who have been by this team for the past 62 years.

STKAFI