Knicks already appear on right path
(At the risk of being evenhanded, Brown used to allow the media to attend his team's entire workout. That custom abruptly changed the day someone wondered why Allen Iverson wasn't at practice, much less practicing.)
Not only does D'Antoni allow the nefarious media to observe an hour or more of team preparation, but, at their conclusion, he's apt to initiate a conversation with his newest favorite pen pals. And he almost always says things worth jotting down, things that most people in his command position would be hesitant to share knowing they'll be taken out of context, paraphrased and misquoted. For example, during one Saratoga training camp discussion D'Antoni covered the following semi-controversial territory.
Jamal Crawford: When I mentioned he looked passive when playing in a lineup with three guards, D'Antoni remarked, "He took the night off. The other two guards (Marbury and Chris Duhon) really went after it, but Jamal put it on cruise control. Either that or he felt ignored. He can't just pick his spots. He needs to assert himself, be assertive. We need his scoring. I plan to talk to him to find out what happened."
Jared Jeffries: "The previous regime made a mistake playing him at small forward. You don't want him outside trying to hit shots he can't make consistently or trying to create off the dribble 18 feet from the basket. He doesn't have the upper body strength to muscle fives but he's a center and maybe an occasional four."
Quentin Richardson and Marbury: "I hate it when guys taunt each other like they did. It's OK to have a little fun at the other guys' expense after you score on him, but then you got to let it go and get on with the game. It is a game, after all. They're not the only guys on the team who take it too far."
D'Antoni has a remedy for Knicks addicted to bouncing the ball. New rule: Players must to shoot or pass in three dribbles or fewer. "If that doesn't work I'll cut it to two dribbles."
peter.vecsey@nypost.
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