duncan228
03-28-2009, 10:30 PM
Kevin Garnett defends Stephon Marbury (http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view/2009_03_27_Kevin_Garnett_defends_Stephon_Marbury:_ Confident_point_guard_will_help/)
Confident point guard will help
By Steve Bulpett
ATLANTA - Stephon Marbury is having a rough time of it as he tries to fit into Green. In Wednesday night’s loss at Orlando, he played just 6:21 - easily his low as a Celtic - and went scoreless (for his fifth time here) with one assist.
Beyond some brief flashes, the point guard has yet to play the kind of game on which he built his reputation - or even the kind of game that would lead one to believe he can be a factor for this team.
Fittingly, the NBA’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year came to Marbury’s defense. Kevin Garnett spoke up for his former teammate in Minnesota, both as a player and as a person.
“Steph’s leadership I think has been sort of questioned and damaged, if you will,” Garnett said. “But once a leader, always a leader. I’ve been telling some of the young guys who haven’t seen a lot of Steph that I thought we got a steal in grabbing him.
“Obviously, for whatever reasons, his different relationships with different ballclubs was a thing of the past. If you look at some of the guys on this team, they haven’t always had the best reps before coming. But we deal with each other how we deal with each other, and he fits right in.
“Not only is he versatile, but people forget that Steph was one of the premier guards in this league for a while. And other than him not playing for a year, we all expect big things out of him. But I think he expects a lot of big things out of himself. He works extremely hard. You just don’t, excuse my French, be the (expletive) from a point guard standpoint, all them years of being who you are. Obviously, the facts are there, but you just don’t become that. You get that through hard work, watching film. I know what kind of drive he has inside, and I think he’s going to help us in the long run.”
Garnett is well aware of the criticism Marbury has received at various NBA stops. In fact, it’s likely he had his own bone to pick when the point guard left him and the Wolves to pursue glory on warmer stages.
But Garnett insists that none of what he’s heard can alter his impression.
“That’s what you hold onto,” he said. “Someone can have an opinion. It don’t make or break what you know about that person. I feel like as youths, as young guys - especially in the early parts of our career - opportunity-wise we could have did a lot of special things. But individually guys have different things they want to obtain in this league and they want in this league. So I chalked it up.
“Then I used to see him in the media. I never played in New York. I never experienced that. For whatever reason, it was what it was. I never assessed it, never talked about it. It was none of my business. I just watched it from the side and just knew that the Steph I know is sometimes not the same person that people perceive or put out there.”
The Marbury known to Celtics fans is a good guy who’s mainly been saying all the right things. He’s been putting in extra time after practice to get the system down and he’s played hard on the court.
But after more than a year away from a regular-season game, Marbury also is shooting just 27.9 percent from the floor and averaging 2.7 points in 14 games.
Confident point guard will help
By Steve Bulpett
ATLANTA - Stephon Marbury is having a rough time of it as he tries to fit into Green. In Wednesday night’s loss at Orlando, he played just 6:21 - easily his low as a Celtic - and went scoreless (for his fifth time here) with one assist.
Beyond some brief flashes, the point guard has yet to play the kind of game on which he built his reputation - or even the kind of game that would lead one to believe he can be a factor for this team.
Fittingly, the NBA’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year came to Marbury’s defense. Kevin Garnett spoke up for his former teammate in Minnesota, both as a player and as a person.
“Steph’s leadership I think has been sort of questioned and damaged, if you will,” Garnett said. “But once a leader, always a leader. I’ve been telling some of the young guys who haven’t seen a lot of Steph that I thought we got a steal in grabbing him.
“Obviously, for whatever reasons, his different relationships with different ballclubs was a thing of the past. If you look at some of the guys on this team, they haven’t always had the best reps before coming. But we deal with each other how we deal with each other, and he fits right in.
“Not only is he versatile, but people forget that Steph was one of the premier guards in this league for a while. And other than him not playing for a year, we all expect big things out of him. But I think he expects a lot of big things out of himself. He works extremely hard. You just don’t, excuse my French, be the (expletive) from a point guard standpoint, all them years of being who you are. Obviously, the facts are there, but you just don’t become that. You get that through hard work, watching film. I know what kind of drive he has inside, and I think he’s going to help us in the long run.”
Garnett is well aware of the criticism Marbury has received at various NBA stops. In fact, it’s likely he had his own bone to pick when the point guard left him and the Wolves to pursue glory on warmer stages.
But Garnett insists that none of what he’s heard can alter his impression.
“That’s what you hold onto,” he said. “Someone can have an opinion. It don’t make or break what you know about that person. I feel like as youths, as young guys - especially in the early parts of our career - opportunity-wise we could have did a lot of special things. But individually guys have different things they want to obtain in this league and they want in this league. So I chalked it up.
“Then I used to see him in the media. I never played in New York. I never experienced that. For whatever reason, it was what it was. I never assessed it, never talked about it. It was none of my business. I just watched it from the side and just knew that the Steph I know is sometimes not the same person that people perceive or put out there.”
The Marbury known to Celtics fans is a good guy who’s mainly been saying all the right things. He’s been putting in extra time after practice to get the system down and he’s played hard on the court.
But after more than a year away from a regular-season game, Marbury also is shooting just 27.9 percent from the floor and averaging 2.7 points in 14 games.