Isiah's Curse

Stephon Marbury, aka 'Starbury' and Steve Francis aka 'Stevie Franchise' have had two of the strangest and saddest careers in NBA history.  What is even more perplexing is how closely related these two players are.  The look on Marbury's face sums up his time in New York, and is probaly the same look he had in his SUV when he was banging Knicks' interns in it.


What got me started on this random thought? Two things, one a buddy of mine sent me a link to an article about Francis playing in China.  Second, a 19 year old kid I work with had no idea who Anthony Mason was.  Why is that significant? Because there is a whole generation of kids growing up right now who think LeBron or Kobe are the best players ever and who think players like Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis are average players at best.  I was lucky to have been taught much about basketball by my dad and was able to appreciate players of an older era, but its becoming more common these days that people don't know anything about the past in sports.  It's sad to me to think that there are kids out there right now who only know Michael Jordan from what they've seen on highlights and heard about in discussions involving other players.  So this an attempt to help us not forget the past so easily, because it wasn't that long ago that Marbury and Francis were among the best point guards in the NBA and played for the US national team.

To start the two point guards were born one day apart, Marbury on February 20, 1977 and Francis on February 21, 1977.  Both would go on to become stars in the ACC, Marbury with Georgia Tech, and Francis with Maryland.  Each of them made huge impacts on their teams right away, Marbury joined Garnett and helped push the Timberwolves into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history and Francis became Rookie of the Year in 2000.

Marbury has always been deemed a head case, even as he was coming out of New York as a McDonald's High School All-American before becoming an AP Third Team All-American in 1996 as a freshman.  Marbury was traded from Minnesota just a little over two seasons due to his problems of co-existing with Kevin Garnett.  Marbury went to two All-Star games, one with New Jersey and then again with Phoenix.  Marbury would be traded again by Phoenix to New York where he fizzled out under coach Isiah Thomas and eventually wound up playing in China.

Francis went to three all-star games while in Houston before being dealt to Orlando in the Tracy McGrady trade.  From there he still played well and was traded to the New York Knicks.  This is where things get even weirder.  Marbury was traded to New York along with Penny Hardaway who was then used in the trade to bring Francis to New York.

Francis bombed in New York playing for Thomas and was later traded to Portland and now he currently plays in China as well.  Both players have career scoring averages of 18 points, Marbury was a former all-NBA team member.  How did this happen?  How can two guys in their prime fall out of the NBA so fast and so quickly?

One name.  Isiah Thomas, Thomas' reign as Knicks GM and coach is so bad that he almost beats out former Cavs owner Ted Stepien, who traded away so many draft picks that the league instituted a rule limiting the number of future picks a team can trade, aka the Stepien Rule.

Thomas managed to destroy basketball's largest franchise so completely that only now are they starting to turn it around.  In addition to that legacy he also managed to ruin two point guards in their prime so badly that they were out of the league by the age of 33 and playing in China.