Knicks still an exercise in futility

A change in management, from the front office to the basketball court, still hasn't represented a shift towards common sense in the New York Knicks organization.

The stubbornness of general manager Donnie Walsh and head coach Mike D'Antoni to keep Stephon Marbury on the squad despite their declaration that he won't play is same old, same old for fans alienated by poor decision after poor decision from this franchise. Hey, maybe Walsh and D'Antoni are trying to play it cool, and actually are seeking trade possibilities for Marbury. After all, Marbury is an above-average player whose $21 million salary this season can help a prospective trade partner eliminate a healthy chunk of salary cap space after the season.

But if Walsh and D'Antoni expect that their team can remove itself from all the controversy of the past few years by essentially hiding Marbury at the end of the bench, then they have another thing coming. D'Antoni's remarks yesterday that the New York press would become tired of this story and would stop reporting about it since they'd be "beating a dead horse" shows just how out-of-touch D'Antoni is with the media in his new home city. He might have enjoyed dealing with the laid-back West Coast media in Phoenix, but the Philly-NYC-Boston media triangle torches decisions like the one Walsh and D'Antoni made yesterday.

There is no way the Knicks will create a new team culture as long as perpetrators of the past few years still show up for work every day. It's bad enough that overpaid stiffs like Jerome James and Eddy Curry are still on the team. But declaring that Marbury won't play for the remainder of the season, and then trying to sell fans and the media on the fact that Marbury won't create a disturbance, is about as irrational and unrealistic as you can get.