THESE ARE the Marbury Millennium Nets.
An hour and a half before last night’s game, Keith Van Horn, who is affectionately called Pale Rider by Jayson Williams, was paler than usual. The flu had hit Van Horn like a Kurt Thomas forearm and he walked out of Meadowlands.
The Knicks had problems of their own with one suspended player, Thomas, Charlie Ward was down and out with the flu and Marcus Camby was sitting with a sprained ankle.
It was up to Stephon Marbury to lead the way past the Knicks last night at the Meadowlands, a game the Nets simply had to win to prove to themselves they are not again a lost franchise. And we’re not talking about points. Defense and assists made the difference for Marbury as the Nets beat the Knicks, 89-83. This was Marbury’s first win over the Knicks while wearing a New Jersey uniform. He played 40 minutes, scored 16 points on only 5-for-17 shooting but it was the 13 assists — three more than the entire Knick team — and four steals, as many as Knicks, that helped win the game.
No steal was more vital or impressive than when Marbury jumped high in the air to snag Chris Childs’ pass with 4:49 remaining and the Nets holding an 81-73 lead. It was one of those steals that Marbury has been waiting his entire life to make.
How did he manage to jump so high in anticipation just as Childs released the pass in front of him? On the way out of the Nets locker room Marbury explained such an unbelievable move. “I looked at his eyes,” he said excitedly. “And his eyes got big. I just knew. Making that steal was my highlight of my season.”
The 11-18 Nets have won eight straight home games and just know they are a better team than they have showed so far. There is so much history to overcome for this team, starting, of course, with the firesale of Julius Erving, a move that insulted the basketball gods. If it was not a Micheal Ray Richardson drug relapse it was Darryl Dawkins slipping in the shower or Larry Brown slipping out the back door or Rollie Massimino not showing up at all or Jayson Williams breaking his leg. It’s always something.
The most terrible moment was Drazen Petrovic’s fatal car accident. The Nets have been the saddest of franchises, not because they haven’t tried, but because they’ve always tried too hard.
Nowhere have they tried harder than to be better than the Knicks, the big brother from across the river. While the Knicks have succeeded with toughness, the Nets have always been too soft.
Marbury gives them a new level of street toughness. He must fight the same demons of trying too hard to be better than the Knicks, a team he loved growing up, but last night was a monumental step. The first win is something special. “It feels good,” he said, sipping his words as if they were fine champagne. “It feels real, real, real good.
“Tonight we helped each other and Kerry [Kittles] was our go-to guy,” Marbury said. “We showed a lot of heart. We showed we can play at a high level for a long time tonight.”
For 12 straight years the Knicks have made the playoffs, reaching the Finals last year. The Nets have made it to the playoffs 10 times in their NBA history. They have never gone further than the Knicks in the playoffs.
Yet, expectations always seem to be high with the Nets. They always seem to be talking about 50 wins but they’ve never gotten to that magic number.
“Expectations are hard to manage,” Jeff Van Gundy was saying last night. “Last year they played well at the end of the year and you always think it’s just going to start over good, nothing is automatic. It’s very hard to maintain, everything has to go right and now they’re fighting Jayson Williams’ injury. The more I’m in this league the more I realize this league is about consistency and durability of players. Talent is definitely one factor, but you have to keep your best players on the floor.”
Marbury was on the floor for 40 battling minutes last night. When it was over, it was as if a burden had been lifted. As he dressed and talked, there was a sense that he is more at peace with being a Net than ever before.
Ironically, facing his locker, in big bold letters, the Nets have stenciled these words on the wall as a team calling card: Be Someone Special.
As a team last night, with Marbury at the point, they were just that.