Marbury rips D’Antoni

I guess Mike D’Antoni didn’t win many over in his time as head coach of the New York Knicks. That’s why coaches get fired, add in the fact that he wasn’t winning enough made him more cannon fodder for the critics. But I bet D’Antoni didn’t count on Stephon Marbury jumping on the rip D’Antoni bandwagon. Remember Marbury played for D’Antoni while the two were in Phoenix and New York.

Now Marbury is the last person to rip anyone considering he wasn’t necessarily a winning player while he was in the NBA.  

Marbury went on Twitter to call D’Antoni a coward.

“Coward’s Step down men knock walls down that men like him post up. I told you’ll about that dude but you’ll didn’t listen. #DANPHONY”  

Mighty bold words from someone who once ate Vaseline. Just because D’Antoni couldn’t make things work with Carmelo Anthony and tried to trade him for Deron Williams and failed doesn’t make him a coward. I just call it a failed power play. And just because Marbury could never see eye to eye with D’Antoni doesn’t make him a coward. It’s called a clash of egos.

D’Antoni Is A Bad Late Game Coach

New York Knicks head man Mike D’Antoni is not a bad coach. Not by any means. He can get your team to the playoffs, rack up plenty of wins in the regular season, and plays an exciting style of basketball. His only problem is that he’s a bad late game coach.

Watching the Knicks melt down in the first two games in the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Boston Celtics reminded me of when he was coaching the Phoenix Suns. Suns fans probably know what I’m talking about and were probably having flashbacks watching the Knicks give away the first two games to the Celtics.

For all the flash the Suns had, they constantly found ways to lose to the Spurs, among others, in the playoffs. The Suns were always there in the end but found ways to lose it. Credit D’Antoni for that. He wasn’t the greatest late game tactician. That flaw reared it’s ugly head in games 1 and 2.

In game 1 Amare’ Stoudamire was punishing Kevin Garnett in the fourth quarter, but for some reason he didn’t see the ball down the stretch. Now if Stoudamire is the hot hand you keep going to it, don’t you? I know I would, but I’m only a Playstation coach so how would I know. All plays should’ve been ran through Stoudamire, save for Toney Douglas’ three pointer. Then you let Carmelo Anthony settle for a 30 footer for the last shot. Take your chances for overtime. I didn’t watch much of game 2, but I saw enough to come to the realization that D’Antoni doesn’t make the best choices late in the game.

The Knocks will be a force in the Eastern Conference in the years to come, whether D’Antoni will be there to see it through I don’t know. I’m not calling for his job, but the Knicks are destined to become the new age version of the 1980’s Milwaukee Bucks. Win a lot of games, but won’t win big in the playoffs.