Another scorer in the backcourt might be too much of a good thing
Boxing fans who went to Madison Square Garden for the Félix Trinidad - Ricardo Mayorga middleweight fight this month also got a glimpse of coming hoops attractions. They saw Stephon Marbury, the Knicks' prize acquisition last January, and Jamal Crawford, their big pickup over the summer, out on the town together for the first time. "A lot of people came up and said, 'I see you and your man are starting to bond,'" Marbury says. "I want to teach him that whenever he has a question, he should come and ask."
Besides Marbury, the 24-year-old Crawford also can turn to a longtime admirer, team president Isiah Thomas, for answers. Thomas acquired the 6'5" guard from the Bulls in a six-player deal in August and will pay him $56 million over seven years. "When I was a rookie in the Chicago camp, we talked for three hours," says Crawford of meeting Thomas. "He told me he liked my game a lot. In this business you meet a lot of people who tell you anything you want to hear. But he backed it up. When free agency started, at 12:01 a.m. he was on the phone with my agent." Crawford is paying tribute to his new boss by wearing Thomas's old number, 11.
Though Crawford led the Bulls in scoring last season, he shot poorly from the floor (38.6%) and from beyond the arc (31.7%). He believes that those numbers will rise now that defenses won't be able to key on him, while coach Lenny Wilkens is confident that he can keep all three guards -- Crawford, Marbury and Allan Houston -- happy and productive. "Good players want to be part of a winning tradition," Wilkens says. "And once you establish that, then everybody buys into it."
That attitude would at least give New York a fighting chance. -- Bill Syken
