FanHouse MikeDAntoni

Stephon Marbury is one of those weird characters who has just the right mix of "crazy" and "keepin' it real" where you can't ever be sure whether to trust or distrust him. Personally, I think he's a bad apple who keeps getting too many chances, but some people feel differently.

After Marbury recently did a Knickerbocker-beat-down of an interview with the New York Post, I would imagine no one who plays professional basketball in the Big Apple is much of a fan either. Marbury's quotes are full of disparaging remarks, as he essentially urged any free agents to avoid Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni like the plague.

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As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

There's been a movement of late, first spewed by David Friedman of Pro Basketball News and later parroted by Marc Berman of the New York Post, to assert Mike D'Antoni hasn't actually helped the Knicks improve at all. This, frankly, is contrarian garbage. The Knicks didn't end up in the playoffs, but the franchise has clearly seen a new dawn.

FanHouse's NBA Guide gives you a daily look at all the games that matter ... and some that don't.

HEADLINER
New York at Golden State, 10:30PM ET

Anyone remember those wild 135-130 finishes when Mike D'Antoni's Suns played the Warriors? Take that, subtract two metric tons of talent on each team, subtract the We Believe home court advantage, and adjust for Tim Thomas. Guess what? It still comes out as a late must-watch. (Well, monitor it at the very least.)

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

* Not long after stepping up to the free throw line in the second quarter, [Nate] Robinson saluted some of his mates that he plays in 'Call of Duty, World at War' on XBox 360 Live. It was his way of proving that it was indeed him playing online." -- Newsday, via BDL.

Okay, so by now you've probably had it up to here with Stephon Marbury coverage. Will he take the buyout, won't he take the buyout, will he go to the Celtics, will he go to the moon, will he sing a song of sixpence, will he continue to complain about the Knicks' refusal to release him while still refusing to take a cut on his buyout, you've heard the gamut.

Well, we just might have the ending to this thing.

No, really. Wait. Come back. Hear us out.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

* Troy Murphy: "I'm going to be an event planner - weddings, bar mitzvahs, everything like that. That's my passion. It is. I've just taken it up the last couple of years." -- South Bend Tribune, via Cornrows.

* "[Bruce] Bowen's style of play does not undermine the quality of the game; in fact, it takes basketball (and basketball fandom) to the peak of its dramatic heights." -- 48 Minutes of Hell.

* "[T]here's a reason that no one goes around quoting any of Christian Bale's lines from [The Dark Knight], a reason that [Heath] Ledger is posthumously up for an Oscar and was spoken of a nomination before his passing, a reason that when you think of that film, you think of the Joker. And it's the same reason kids love to dunk, that we like the fastbreak more than the halfcourt, and why Gilbert Arenas is on the All-Star ballot despite not playing a tick [...]" -- Hardwood Paroxysm.

* Amare Stoudemire: "Refs don't like me as much as the cops didn't like Tupac." -- Arizona Republic (last week).

* This week's NBA on TV announcing schedule, the first Basketball Jones of the New Year, and Getting to Know Robert Swift.

Steve Nash is known for being one the most honest and forthcoming NBA players when it comes to being interviewed, and in a 45-minute conversation with NBC's Graham Bensinger, he continues to hold up that reputaion. Nash discusses a variety of topics, but the one of most interest might be where he chooses to play out his next contract, when his current one is up after next season.


Nash is careful to say that Phoenix is the obvious choice, and is nice enough to give a shout out to his home land in Toronto. But a reunion with Mike D'Antoni in New York (and the chance to play alongside someone like LeBron James at the same time) might just be too tempting for him to pass up.

At the outset of the Knicks' 19-point loss to the Celtics yesterday, Boston got rolling by putting up 40 points in the first quarter. The champs finished the day with 124, so if you didn't know any better, you'd think that New York's head coach might spend at least some of his postgame remarks addressing the team's defensive deficiencies. Since their coach is Mike D'Antoni however, you should know better.

Marc Berman of The NY Post apparently did not know better though, based on his surprise that D'Antoni was focused on the team's offense, even after the horrific defensive game that his team had just played.

You could read my game story for the details, but one thing flabbergasted me in the post-game press conference.

The Knicks had just surrendered 124 points, allowed Boston to shoot 65 percent, permitted 40 points in the first quarter, couldn't contain Rajon Rondo from going to the rack for layups. And all Mike D'Antoni was talking about after the game was the Knicks weren't good enough offensively. Very telling. As if the coach admits he can have no effect on making them sounder defensively, only offensively.

Flabbergasted? Come on, now. I hate to state the obvious here, but D'Antoni has never been about defense, not even in the slightest. His unwillingness to even begin to care about what happens on that end of the floor was the basis for his departure from the Suns. Based on what we saw when he was running the show in Phoenix the last four seasons -- and as crazy as it might sound after a game like the one against Boston -- this isn't something that should come as even a little bit of a surprise.

A clever rumor from Frank Isola of the New York Daily News cites a source who indicates the Bobcats rushed their deal for Boris Diaw and Raja Bell through in order to leave enough cushion before the deadline to flip the new players. The trade deadline is February 19.

Players acquired by trade during the season cannot be packaged with another player in a second trade until 60 days have passed. The Bobcats completed the Diaw/Bell trade last Wednesday, which gave them 70 days until the deadline.

But where on Earth could Diaw and/or Bell be headed? Alan Hahn of Newsday has the predictable suggestion.

The Knicks were very much interested in acquiring both Raja Bell and Boris Diaw, but with Mike D'Antoni now in New York after a bitter divorce from the Suns, they were not going to come directly from Phoenix. [...]

Another source has said the Bobcats have maintained interest in Eddy Curry, who has yet to play this season because of a bone bruise in his left knee.

And scene. If this happens -- any of the old Suns to N.Y. for Curry -- Charlotte's moves begin to make sense and infuriate all the more. Jason Richardson is a phenomenal scorer, the best the Bobcats had by a big margin. Curry's only attribute is scoring. It's just like Larry Brown to prefer a post scorer to a guard gunner.

And while that's good basketball theory, he's ignoring that Curry (who he dealt with in N.Y.) is a huge defensive liability who cannot rebound or block shots, while Richardson was a tough dude with a good spirit and some floor skills. No one on the planet could argue the Bobcats would win a Richardson-for-Curry trade. But then again, no one thought Charlotte won the Diaw-for-Richardson swap either.

A report from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, where the Knicks faced the Suns on December 15th.

There was a piece on TrueHoop yesterday that took a look at each of the final games that led to the firings of six NBA head coaches this season. The New York Knicks ended up killing a coach in two of the six "sendoff games," which is something that Mike D'Antoni found to be a bit insulting.

When asked about the slew of early-season firings (and the one that involved Reggie Theus most recently), D'Antoni pretended to be insulted that coaches were losing their jobs after losing to his Knicks.

"I want to say something, and I hate that for Reggie, there's no doubt about it," D'Antoni said. "But just because the Knicks beat somebody they have to fire the coach the next day? That's the second one! I mean, come on! We're not that bad. You guys are spreading some rumors, 'well if the Knicks beat 'em, then we gotta do something.' "

Obviously D'Antoni was joking around here, but there's at least a little something to it. Even though he and his current roster of players may be giving it all they've got, the fact is that the team traded their best players away for an empty roster spot in the form of Cuttino Mobley, along with some lesser talent. It's perceived by many around the league that the Knicks are mailing it in until 2010, and perception is reality -- especially when we're talking about head coaching jobs in the NBA.