In the past, the Knicks locker room sounded like a pretty tense place, what with all the constant losing, players sniping about roles and PR flaks giving beat reporters the evil eye.
Donnie Walsh promised he'd help change the atmosphere of the entire organization, and his decision to bring in a player's coach in Mike D'Antoni was sure to help the locker room mood ... right? As Marc Berman of the New York Post describes it, let's just say it's a work in progress:
Mike, do us a favor? Play Patrick Ewing Jr. in Boston Friday. It's time. Ewing has three straight DNPs and even got grumpy in the locker room. He brusquely asked a reporter, who was interviewing Chris Duhon next to his locker, to move away from his airspace. Hey Patrick, this ain't Georgetown.
On that note, there was another telling moment in the locker room tonight. Stephon Marbury told a writer to move away from inside his locker-room cubicle as he emerged from the shower. The two had an exchange, nothing big. The more telling part was Jamal Crawford motioning to a couple of media members to check out the scene. It's apparent which combo guard wants Marbury out of town.
I won't hold it against a player for telling a reporter to move -- after all, the locker room is the players' domain, and reporters should anticipate that the tall, wet guys walking around wearing towels want to get to their clothes. That said, the most interesting nugget from Berman's anecdote is obviously Crawford's decidely un-Crawsome decision to draw attention to Marbury's tiff. It's going to take a bit more cooperation than selling out your teammate to get this little experiment to work, fellas.
