Marbury looking forward to playing

Newsday.com BY GREG LOGAN July 10, 2006When the white clothes came out, you were like, 'Damn, why did I do that? That was a mistake.'Smiling and joking his way through his first interview since the Knicks fired Larry Brown and ordered team president Isiah Thomas to replace him as coach, point guard Stephon Marbury looked like the 'after' picture in a before-and-after ad.Marbury spent a good part of last season feuding with Brown and ended more than a few games sitting on the bench with a towel draped over his head, framing a gloomy expression. But Marbury's happiness was .evident when he spoke with Knicks beat writers late Saturday night at a Vegas Summer League game.'They couldn't surgically take the smile off my face,' Marbury said.Asked if that was his reaction when he heard the news of Brown's firing, he said: 'No, I'm talking about how I feel now. I'm talking about Isiah being the coach. I wanted him to be the coach before all of this. I used to beg him, 'Why don't you coach?' Because I know that he knows how to coach.'Marbury said his teammates welcomed the coaching change primarily because they got tired of losing during a 23-59 season that seemed like a forced march toward the end. 'People ask me, 'Why don't you ever smile?'' Marbury said. 'I say, 'Because I never was happy.' Period.'When you're losing, it's not fun. When you win, you all see me, right? I'm screaming, I've got the ball in my hand, they're showing me on the back page smiling. When I'm losing ... 'He didn't have to finish the sentence because the picture of a brooding Marbury became so familiar. There was a brief period in January when the Knicks won six straight and Brown lavished praise on his improvement and leadership. But it all fell apart after Marbury suffered a shoulder injury and struggled when he tried to come back.The Knicks acquired point guard Steve Francis at the trade deadline in February, but the anticipated high-scoring pairing never materialized as Brown seldom played them together. Their confidence gone, Francis and Marbury spent April in street clothes nursing injuries.'I think everything was under strain at the end of the year,' Marbury said. 'I don't think everyone was on the same page. This year, we'll have a different togetherness.'Under Brown, the Knicks had an NBA-record 42 different starting lineups, though Marbury was the constant when healthy.'It's kind of like when you put white clothes and yellow clothes and blue clothes and all different type clothes together when you're supposed to wash them separately,' Marbury said of the assorted lineups. 'When the white clothes came out, you were like, 'Damn, why did I do that? That was a mistake.''If there's a particular change to which Marbury is looking forward, it's an end to the stream of public criticism Brown directed toward his underachieving team. 'I don't think any man on this planet would want the world to know what's going on in his household,' Marbury said. 'That stays in-house.'Marbury described Thomas as something of a 'father figure' because their families have grown close and their relationship goes well beyond basketball. Owner James Dolan has given Thomas one year to show 'significant progress' or be fired, but Marbury said he welcomes the pressure and believes the Knicks should be a playoff contender.As a two-time NBA champion and a Hall of Fame point guard, Thomas commands the players' respect. No one wants him to survive more than Marbury, who said, 'You want to go out there, and you want to do it because it's like you want to impress.'Copyright © 2006 Newsday.com, All Rights Reserved.