alamo50
04-14-2005, 08:53 AM
By Chris Mannix
SI.com
Bryant and Marbury both need a change of location
Posted: Wednesday April 13, 2005 12:12PM; Updated: Wednesday April 13, 2005 12:12PM
What do you think it feels like to be Kobe Bryant?
Your team was just eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. You're in the first year of a contract that, while ensuring your financial future, will hamstring your team's chances of getting someone of comparable talent to play alongside you. Sure, you're the most popular athlete in Los Angeles for your smooth stroke and highlight-reel moves, yet you're reviled by the masses who tune in to TNT and ESPN to see highlights of the burly seven footer you ran out of town. What do you do?
What do you think it feels like to be Stephon Marbury?
You're New York's favorite son, the street baller from Brooklyn who returned home last year as the man who could lead the Knicks back to the top. You're embraced by the fans, although they don't understand how a player with such marvelous talents can't get his team past the first round of the playoffs. After a modicum of success last year, your team is in a free fall, resulting in another new coach (your fourth in a little over a year) and a revamped roster. Your team is in shambles, your payroll is three times that of the Clippers, and your only hope for the future lies with a lottery pick and another draft choice you picked up from the Spurs. What do you do?
The answer for both men? Get out. Get out now. Get out while the getting is good. But it won't be easy.
http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2005/writers/chris_mannix/04/13/daily.blog/p1_kobemarbury_getty.jpg
Kobe's Laker show and Marbury's Broadway act have become stale.
Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Kobe, you're an icon in LA, but should you become available, you would be the most coveted commodity in league history. This season with the Lakers you've gone from arguably the league's best player to maybe the third or fourth best in your conference.
Force a trade, Kobe. Walk into Jerry Buss' office (I would say walk into Mitch Kupchak's office, but do you two even talk any more?) and tell him it's not working out. Cut bait. Go to Seattle, maybe in a sign and trade for Ray Allen and a combination of Nick Collison or Vladimir Radmanovic. Go to New Orleans and play for your old buddy Byron Scott; maybe he can entice the Lakers with a package of Jamaal Magliore and a few No. 1 picks. You think your teammates are the problem? You're like the ringleader of a really bad circus. Isn't this roster almost exactly the same as the one Dwyane Wade carried to the second round of the playoffs? Anyone think Wade couldn't do it again?
Stephon, I know Isiah Thomas sees a lot of himself in you. But as hard-nosed as Isiah was, he was a point guard in the purest sense. He made his teammates better. You make your teammates bored. You are one of the best scoring points in the league, but you aren't even the best point man in your own market. There are players in this league and there are great players. You are not a great player.
Find a way out, Stephon. Find your way back to Minnesota, where you enjoyed the best seasons of your career, and take your rightful place beside Kevin Garnett. Can you imagine what might have been had you never left? You probably wouldn't be wanting for any jewelry for your ring fingers. Go to Isiah. Help him make his team better. You think Latrell Sprewell wouldn't appreciate a return to the Knicks? Package Spree (via sign and trade) with enigmatic center Michael Olowokandi, throw in Minnesota's first lottery pick in almost a decade and you might have yourself a deal. Meanwhile, Jamal Crawford can assume your point position in New York.
Steph, just get out of your hometown. (Come to think of it, has there ever been a situation where a player in his prime returns to the city he called home and was able to live up to expectations?). Go to a place where you can be Robin to someone else's Batman.
Want the truth? Neither one of these players are going anywhere.
Barring the return of Phil Jackson, Kobe will continue leading the Lakers on the road to mediocrity and Marbury will remain the centerpiece of Isiah's floundering Knicks franchise. The shame of it all is that both Stephon and Kobe are wonderful talents, unstoppable off the dribble, unafraid to take the pressure shot. But they're not leaders. KG is a leader. Shaq is a leader. There's no shame in being the No. 2 guy -- just ask Scottie Pippen. The shame lies in an unwillingness to accept it.
SI.com
Bryant and Marbury both need a change of location
Posted: Wednesday April 13, 2005 12:12PM; Updated: Wednesday April 13, 2005 12:12PM
What do you think it feels like to be Kobe Bryant?
Your team was just eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. You're in the first year of a contract that, while ensuring your financial future, will hamstring your team's chances of getting someone of comparable talent to play alongside you. Sure, you're the most popular athlete in Los Angeles for your smooth stroke and highlight-reel moves, yet you're reviled by the masses who tune in to TNT and ESPN to see highlights of the burly seven footer you ran out of town. What do you do?
What do you think it feels like to be Stephon Marbury?
You're New York's favorite son, the street baller from Brooklyn who returned home last year as the man who could lead the Knicks back to the top. You're embraced by the fans, although they don't understand how a player with such marvelous talents can't get his team past the first round of the playoffs. After a modicum of success last year, your team is in a free fall, resulting in another new coach (your fourth in a little over a year) and a revamped roster. Your team is in shambles, your payroll is three times that of the Clippers, and your only hope for the future lies with a lottery pick and another draft choice you picked up from the Spurs. What do you do?
The answer for both men? Get out. Get out now. Get out while the getting is good. But it won't be easy.
http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2005/writers/chris_mannix/04/13/daily.blog/p1_kobemarbury_getty.jpg
Kobe's Laker show and Marbury's Broadway act have become stale.
Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Kobe, you're an icon in LA, but should you become available, you would be the most coveted commodity in league history. This season with the Lakers you've gone from arguably the league's best player to maybe the third or fourth best in your conference.
Force a trade, Kobe. Walk into Jerry Buss' office (I would say walk into Mitch Kupchak's office, but do you two even talk any more?) and tell him it's not working out. Cut bait. Go to Seattle, maybe in a sign and trade for Ray Allen and a combination of Nick Collison or Vladimir Radmanovic. Go to New Orleans and play for your old buddy Byron Scott; maybe he can entice the Lakers with a package of Jamaal Magliore and a few No. 1 picks. You think your teammates are the problem? You're like the ringleader of a really bad circus. Isn't this roster almost exactly the same as the one Dwyane Wade carried to the second round of the playoffs? Anyone think Wade couldn't do it again?
Stephon, I know Isiah Thomas sees a lot of himself in you. But as hard-nosed as Isiah was, he was a point guard in the purest sense. He made his teammates better. You make your teammates bored. You are one of the best scoring points in the league, but you aren't even the best point man in your own market. There are players in this league and there are great players. You are not a great player.
Find a way out, Stephon. Find your way back to Minnesota, where you enjoyed the best seasons of your career, and take your rightful place beside Kevin Garnett. Can you imagine what might have been had you never left? You probably wouldn't be wanting for any jewelry for your ring fingers. Go to Isiah. Help him make his team better. You think Latrell Sprewell wouldn't appreciate a return to the Knicks? Package Spree (via sign and trade) with enigmatic center Michael Olowokandi, throw in Minnesota's first lottery pick in almost a decade and you might have yourself a deal. Meanwhile, Jamal Crawford can assume your point position in New York.
Steph, just get out of your hometown. (Come to think of it, has there ever been a situation where a player in his prime returns to the city he called home and was able to live up to expectations?). Go to a place where you can be Robin to someone else's Batman.
Want the truth? Neither one of these players are going anywhere.
Barring the return of Phil Jackson, Kobe will continue leading the Lakers on the road to mediocrity and Marbury will remain the centerpiece of Isiah's floundering Knicks franchise. The shame of it all is that both Stephon and Kobe are wonderful talents, unstoppable off the dribble, unafraid to take the pressure shot. But they're not leaders. KG is a leader. Shaq is a leader. There's no shame in being the No. 2 guy -- just ask Scottie Pippen. The shame lies in an unwillingness to accept it.