Mark Jackson was the last true “NYC Point Guard”
We commented on this a while back and the answer to the obvious
question of where did all the NYC point guards go is rather simple:
They died with Mark Jackson.
Jackson was pass first, not get paid first, and just how Kurt Cobain was anointed the slayer of metal hair bands, Stephon Marbury is now the poster child of fallen NYC point guards.
Harvey Araton of the NY Times explains:
“…To a certain extent, Stephon Marbury’s continued absence — almost self-imposed, at this point, by his nihilistic refusal to negotiate a buyout from his hometown team — raises and answers the question. On ability, Marbury should have been his generation’s New York City standard-bearer, wherever he played, instead of the poster point guard for dysfunction and waste.
Not to everyone, mind you, including one former Knick and native New Yorker whose playing reputation was antithetical to Marbury’s. Second in career assists in the N.B.A. to John Stockton, Mark Jackson is widely considered to have exceeded his quote-unquote natural talent.
“Because point guards are usually judged on whether they play for winning teams, that’s what a lot of people think about Stephon, but it’s probably not all fair,” Jackson said from Los Angeles, his adopted home. “You look at his numbers, and they are awfully impressive, career wise.”
Attitude and likeability aside, it is an assertion that cannot be summarily dismissed, factoring Marbury’s 19.7 career scoring average and his 6,396 assists. He is 22nd on the career assists list despite playing only 24 games last season and none this season.
If Marbury, who will turn 32 next month, never suits up again, he will still outrank other New York City point guard legends whose professional careers ranged from fair (Kenny Anderson) to poor (Pearl Washington) to virtually nonexistent (Kareem Reid, Omar Cook, Erick Barkley). With Marbury’s Coney Island cousin Sebastian Telfair well on his way to career backup-hood and another behaviorally challenged Brooklynite, Jamaal Tinsley, banished from the Indiana Pacers, who could blame the rest of the country for dismissing New York’s reputation as a spawning ground of great point guards as a news media myth?
The “myth” is that just because you handle the ball doesn’t make you a great point guard. Jackson himself had a great handle but he was slow, yet he was smart enough to slow the game down with him. All that did was make him the league’s 2nd all-time leading assist man.
Trust me I’ve studied NYC forever. I played against Shammgod and Steph at camp, I watched Kareem Reid, in fact my freshman high school team beat his teammate Eric Harris, who would star at Minnesota, and his St.Raymond’s freshman team.
The city is about respect and that goes a long way to the legacy, but for some reason no one remembers assists to turnover ratio or team field goal percentage. Why would they when a guy can get to the basket or pull up at will? Unfortunately, that’s the modern NYC guard: off the charts athleticism sans game management.
Who managed a game better than Jackson? Or Lenny Wilkins? Shoot Lenny Wilkins couldn’t teach Marbury so what does that tell you?
To me the argument of hype is a valid one as Jamal Tinsley, who wasn’t highly recruited, learned the NBA-type game at Iowa State, and Skip Alston traveled all the way to New Mexico. They needed to grow away from all the nonsense that weighs so many guards down.
There’s plenty of good young city guards on the horizon like Kemba Walker at UConn, but again he’s a combo. I could name a million to come along with similar skill sets, but I can honestly think of one player like Mark Jackson.
And that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
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