Remember: It Doesn’t Matter Who Starts… It Matters Who Finishes
Yesterday, Stephon Marbury made his first step towards buying into the new culture and system of a Mike D’Antoni team. According to Alan Hahn’s Newsday report this morning, Marbury has publicly accepted his likely role as a 6th man, stating, “Whatever role they want me to play, that’s what I will play… I just think that going forward, to limit the distractions and just concentrate on basketball… that’s the most important thing.” I am not sure how long this new attitude will last, or if he even means it, but this was nonetheless encouraging to read.
Before my junior varsity season in high school, my coach, Coach Sullivan, who I have the utmost respect for, warned my team not to worry too much about what the starting lineup was for a given game. To him, being able to start a game didn’t require much. If you were told to start, then you found yourself in at the opening tip. He let us know that he cared much more about who finished games, because to finish a game and ultimately be victorious, you had to be hungry to win. You had to do everything in your power to walk off the court as a victor. And the more and more I thought about it, I realized he was right.
Now I am not trying to say (and neither was my JV coach) that there is no value in starting the five players that give you the best chance to win. What I am saying, however, is that in a 48 minute game, starters are not always the determining factors in the outcome. During the course of a game, a coach might decide to play hot hands or call on different players to perform certain tasks. Throughout his Knick career, David Lee has played huge parts in winning plenty of games, most of which he did not start in. Ben Gordon came off the bench for most of his career in Chicago, but when the 4th quarter came, he always seemed to find a way to take over.
Over the last few seasons, the Knicks have had trouble finishing games, mostly because they have not had the drive to do so. Going forward, Coach D’Antoni has to find out who is willing to finish games for him. He has to find out who has the heart and the drive to not back down from competition and to battle until the final buzzer sounds on the scoreboard. Those finishers might not be the same players who start games, and they might not be the same players every night. But rest assured, if the Knicks do not have finishers on this team, this season will be a very long and frustrating one to watch.
As for Marbury, remember, it does not matter who starts games … it matters who finishes them! Accept your bench role and help this team win.
