Where Have All The New York City Point Guards Gone?
Stephon MarburyFollowing up Andrew’s great article on Monday, “A Point Guard’s True Value,” the New York Times yesterday asked an interesting question: where have all the New York City point guards gone?
From banished Stephon Marbury and Jamaal Tinsley, to Sebastian Telfair, Kareem Reid, Omar Cook and Erick Barkley, there hasn’t been an NYC point guard in a minute.
“I don’t really have an explanation for it,” said Mark Jackson, who coincidentally believes “the state of the point guard position is at an all-time low,” with few who truly fit the job description and more who think shoot first and pass second.
To read the whole article, click HERE.
What do you think? Where have all the New York City point guards gone?
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January 15th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
rean the real point guard says:
they all went to krispy kreme and made their way out of the L
January 15th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Jah says:
The hype may have gotten to them.
Many of the names mentioned here thought they were valued more than they actually were in the League and are now suffering from it. Like Tinsley and Marbury.
The others like Telfair and Cook…PROBABLY left for the league too early. Skill wise — the talent was/is there but perhaps the emotional/social development necessary to maintain at that level was lacking.
Who really knows?
January 15th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Spliff 2 My Lou says:
Outside of NY, who really cares?
January 15th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Kobeef says:
“the state of the point guard position is at an all-time low,”
WTF?
Derrick Rose? CP3? Devin Harris?
That trio could be one of the best collections of PG’s to ever play the game and they are all just starting to get good.
Jackson needs to accept that the old concept of a point guard no longer applies. CP3 is a throwback but Harris and Rose are the future of the NBA PG>
January 15th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Kobeef says:
Oh yeah and the problem that Barkley, Cook, Telfair etc have is that, like most New Yorkers, they think they are the center of the world.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
control says:
My theory is that rats ate them. NY is just full of rats (ones on four and ones on two legs). A majority of the “legendary” NY point guards are overhyped and bat shit crazy anyhow, it’s a good thing for the league (and world) that there aren’t many NY pgs around.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Yoooo says:
Kobeef ur whalin. Devin Harris is having his best year ever and now he’s a part of a 4headed monster of the greatest PG’s ever? How long u been off the similac?
NYC Pg’s have been overhyped severely in the last 20 years. They have been exposed consistently by no namers and over exposed by dick ridin ass media. The NYC PG has been, for the last 15 yrs at least, not even CLOSE to the Pg’s of NJ even. But because everything is “better” in Ny they be soupin these clowns up… You can buy the same red shirt in NY and DC but let a NY nigga tell it, they got the special edition joint…
NY has fallen off as a whole in EVERY way imaginable. They so distracted out there by keepin up with the jones’ and lookin cool they forget to hone their craft. NY rappers are ass (except my man Fab and Jada I guess but he seems corny to me now, RIP Stack Bundles…) their ball players are overhyped (**cough** Stephenson, Lance) and I don’t even consider them the fashion capital anymore cuz they dress the same as people from ATL and DC and EVERYWHERE else. Even the NY gangsta has gone soft. Walkin around with his whole asshole out in skinny jeans and yellow sneakers. NY is played out my mans. In every way possible.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
rlf says:
maybe the need this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPnRFkPWyDM i’m sorry that is funny
January 15th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
AY says:
kobeef, no love for deron williams huh? he’s a year younger than devin harris, and cp3 is a good two years younger than devin harris: devin harris is no future.
i don’t know why mark jackson is complaining, chris duhon is doing a pretty damn good job looking like him, all the way down to the unathletic/bad shot selection/pass first persona on the knicks. well, that and he was never really that good, i don’t understand how he became the spokesman for ny basketball. I’d rather ask rafer alston why there aren’t any good point guards from ny in the nba and watch his reaction.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Dime Magazine says:
@Kobeef
He was refering to NYC PGs
January 15th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Kobeef says:
@Dime
It was a weird way to say that. He references the position generally and not the talent in NYC..but I’m not the grammar police.
@AY
I’m don’t think Deron is on the same level as Rose, Cp3 or Harris. He’s good but not “one man wrecking crew” good.
@Yoo
I’m an old man and can say that talent like Harris, CP3 and Rose is rare.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Yoooo says:
Sorry boss give me Magic, Stoockton, GP, Isaih, Tim Hardaway, I might even throw Kevin Johnson in there. Even cats like Kenny Anderson knew how to play the game man and the right way. All those guys with the exception of KJ had complete games ( and Kenny didn’t play much D if I remember correctly) but the first 5 is definitely taking dumps on the PG’s of today
January 15th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
mules says:
if Harris and Rose are the future of the PG position in the NBA then the skill level really has fallen off. The PG’s job is to run the offense and take care of the ball…not necessarily to score. It’s no coincidence that neither the Bulls or the Nets are anywhere near the top of the standings, both Harris and Rose turn the ball over to much and don’t get their teammates enough easy looks. I can’t think of any team that’s ever won a chip with a shoot-first PG…it makes the offense too predictable and easy to defend.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
j-bell says:
skip to my lou aka rafer alston aka the last emperor aka tricks are for kids is still doing it in the league even when no one thought he would last this long. he is of a dying breed, he is a pass first point guard, and that is what a true point guard is supposed to be. but to think that ny point guards are no more is kinda stupid, fuck a point guard is born every minute in new york, there like jedis or some shit thell always come back and return to the top. just like how hip hop was hot in the south, but ny is the mecca u cant never count them out.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
the one says:
Kemba Walker Future NBA PG Rice Highschool
January 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Mamba says:
I cant really speak on NYC to much because I was born and raised on the west coast – but I do think the position has changed – what that has to do with NYC I couldnt say,
It seems to me that really there are a lot more hybrid players as I like to call them, guys that can play several positions – there are not a lot of TRUE position players anymore,
I think when you are a young kid you are taught the basics, or learn them by mimicking your fave players, for a lot of guys they work hard on their ballhandling and coordination, then when they grow, boom, you can play almost any position,
Be able to post up, face up, cut, it doesnt matter at that point, who knows I may be way off but thats how I see it
January 15th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Amar says:
I love how if you’re a PG and you’re from NYC you’re apparently better than you actually are. seriously, kenny anderson and rod strickland (i think he was a NYC guy too) were way too hyped up back when they were playing. either of them sniff 50 fg% in a season? just stupid. NY is a city that is full of itself on so many levels. especially when it comes to sports.
Telfair, for example, hasn’t done anything in his entire career to even deserve the amount of stuff written about him in papers, magazines and the internet. if he was a white kid from idaho no one would care about him. even if his 2nd cousin was the logo.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Detroit Dave says:
Cats gotta remember my dude Rod Strickland… He was a triple double threat and also a very, very, very good PG
January 15th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
all day jay says:
the one i gotta agree with u man
i’m a Bx native and i gotta show luv 4 my home town players kemba walker is one of the next great PG’s from the NY to do some damage in the league as long as he continues to work hard, and listen to the right people. if he stays there for the rest of his career at uconn i see him being a legit first round pic in the draft . as long as he don’t leave school early he will be good.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
KAKE JELLY says:
Two Words: Lance Stephenson.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Andy says:
omar cook made the not so wise move of leaving college early
but he aint starving
He’s playing for Unicaja in spain
January 15th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
karizmatic says:
Where did they go? The same place all the New York rappers went.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
je708 says:
give me calderon, or give me death.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
dapro says:
NYC point guards are head cases for the most part with the exception of a few
They are vastly overrated due to being from NYC it seems
January 15th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Scott says:
FYI, Strickland is a DC Native from what I remember.
Strickland was underrated in the L, but probably over-hyped in College and High School. If he ever had a jumper, he would’ve killed, but he didn’t. Dude was still sick though, and was never really given his just due until late in his career when the PG position started fallin off and he was one of the few who could TRULY create for others (at that time). But ya, no jumper.
I’d write more on the state of NYC PG’s, but I believe a few people hit the nail on the head, they get overhyped in NYC, they believe the hype and then they stay 1 year in college or have gone str8 to the L (Telfair) when maybe they shouldn’t have. A PG is seriously the position you want a kid to stay all 4 years to learn the damn position, cuz no one can learn it in High School the individual and team talent/skill/coaching is a lot higher in the college level than the high school level.
I still have NO IDEA why Telfair made the jump.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
buck says:
just wonderin why everyone’s on rose and harris’ nuts like they’ve accomplished something in the league . they’re both good but i don’t see them as one man wrecking crews thats gonna win a championship any time soon. i totally agree with mules. they both get way too much hype off of droppin miller or droppin 40. gimme paul, deron, nash, kidd, maybe even calderon anyday.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
webbie352 says:
@ KAKE JELLY
lance is a 2 guard.
isnt kemba walker from nyc?
he is gonna be nice give hiim a yr.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Sccob says:
Kobeef…
NY is the center of the world. Don’t get it twisted son.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
123 says:
Intersection of the Prime Meridian and the Equator could more accurately be labelled the center of the world.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
KnickFan84 says:
A lot of NYC hate I see in here. Listen, in all seriousness, growing up in Queens & BK, the competition level fell off to be honest. The IT thing was to be a 6’10 KG wannabe, not the next Marbury etc. Unfortunately we could have had more PG’s until Jason Kidd kept embarrassing new york dudes and Marbury really didn’t help when he couldn’t backup the talk etc.
It’s the way of the dinorsaur NYC PG’s. I don’t know what we even produce anymore… At least we not responsible for Eddy Curry…
January 15th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
SteveNash says:
they are all in jersey with Bobby Hurley and Jay Williams
January 15th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
heartbreaker85 says:
it’s not that the NYC aint producing pg’s anymore, it’s the league wanting/hyping euro-type guards who are pass first and dont have criminal records.
harris plays like a euro pg, williams is a legit euro pg, chris paul is arguably the closest thing to an old school american pg who scores in the 20s while dishing 10 dimes per.
January 16th, 2009 at 2:15 am
doc says:
Because if u a good PG in NY everybody on your dick when u 10 years old and u dont work on your game like u should because everything is given to u.Then as soon as they step out city lines and get smacked in the mouth by a PG from Philly or Montana thats a hungry 18 year old tryin to get to the top it dont even hurt because they been on top since they was 10 anyway.
January 16th, 2009 at 4:36 am
M Intellect says:
I see a lot of parralells on this between Ballers in NY and Footballers in London.
When your good at basketball/football in the big cities, everyone rides your jock because they think your gonna be rich and famous. And it doesn’t matter who you are, after a while you start to believe that hype and it becomes more important then the sport you started to play. The top boys in the hood will put you on because they think you’ll take them to the top of the city, give you a taster of that life, which you get addicted to and after a while your on your grind in the club more then your grind in the gym
9 times out of 10 once that happens that’s the end of it.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:22 am
bighawk says:
its funny how all u dudes are killing ny point guards first off telfair went pro because adidas gave him 12-15 million sneaker deal any body in thier right mind takes the money and in high school he was the best pg in the country were is darius washington n shaun livingston out the league kenny anderson had a good run so did strickland some ny players are special ed n for all u small town haters ny is the center of universe deal with it.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
e says:
i will say this i once had a brash attitude about ny ball once i got nice but i wasnt nice in them books and failed off my whole high school career but ill say when you play against out of state players in those out of state tourneys if you not on your a game some hungry cat will take stright to you and try to humilate you thats what it is ny guards and players in general get cocky and think they dont have to play hard or no one can do anything to them
January 16th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
e says:
But ill tell you lance stephenson is the next great out of nyc i dont care what anyone has to say about that ive seen him effortlessly handle pros
February 5th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
wiz says:
NY guards are still very good. In N.Y. we battle amongst ourself about who’s better. We hate so much on our own players It’s sad. It just the perception and timing of everything that has us down now. If you look across the country. I could name a few who are under the radar but are a lot better than advertised. Corey Fisher vs Oj Mayo(possible R.O.Y.) in the league. In high school they faced off. Corey had 37 &11 with a victory and Mayo had 48 4 5. We base it off who got farther and that’s not a fair assesment. Corey Fisher could play in the N.B.A. now. O.Cook is a N.B.A. guard he’s a million times better than duhon. D.Hill is another N.B.A. ready guard. Just ask pros now like Rudy Gay,B.Gordon,D.J. Augustin,C.Villanueva,R.Foye. He didn’t make it to the league but will kill half of the guards in the league. Basketball is so political and ran by people who have no idea of the game or talent. It’s just a business and all they care about is money. It’s why everyear a tons of real fans don’t relate to it anymore. Another case in point Brandon Jennings and Marcus Williams. Future lottery pick and solid N.B.A. guard pre injury went up against Daryll Hill.(Hunter Pro-City) 1st game Hill outdueled both players to the tune of 28 &11 and nearly won.& then in the chip beat out Keon Lawrence,K.Satterfield,S.Gaines,&Marcus Williams on his way to the chip. The point im making is Hype sometimes helps and in the same instance could derail someones career. The hype Sebastian had to live up too. Was too much for 90% of stars(D.Wagner/H.Miner) to live up too. He’s a pretty good player and if you watch is going to have a solid N.B.A. carrer.
Chris Duhon is having what seems to be a very productive year. Due to it not being any burden on him to much of anything. He’s a backup guard who’s overacheiving. Now if someone would have said he’s going to take us to the playoffs and win some games. He’d look horrible. Ny guards are still there and some of them are great players. A.Barret,D.Hill,C.Williams,S.Burtt,A.Dobie,J.Mcleish,
Q.Holsey,C.Fisher,K.Walker,A.Price,E.Sosa. Just to name of few who for whatever reason slipped through the cracks or strangely underatted. Would take on any guard from anywhere. We might be singing a different tune. I’ll take D.Hill & C.Williams and play any backcourt in the WORLD. 2 Of the quietest killers who are constantly overlooked by media. The public for whatever reason. Hype usually isn’t reality. The Hype Machine in the N.B.A only promotes 2 players and 2 teams. You sometims forget how many teams are actually in the N.B.A. A shout out to all the forgotten and not Televised enough. G.Arenas,B.Davis,J.Johnson,D”RING”Wade,C.Anthony,B.Roy,D.Howard,and a slew of others. If we were to take NY current top players N.B.A. D League, Streetball and play Philly,Chi,D.C.,L.A., or whoever I’d definitely place my bet on my hometown. D.Hill,R.Artest,L.Odom,E.Brand,B.Gordon,Q.Holsey,R.Alston
Kemba and Corey Fisher. Please tell me who would want to see that on the court. Ricky Rubio would get abused if he came to N.Y for the summer and he’s the truth. So don’t sleep on N.Y. You say Rap is dead in N.Y. and we still got Jay,50,Nas,Lox,Fab. Please think things throughly. If they got on a track together WOW! We keep ourselves back. Sooner or later well get things back on track then what. Shout outs to whoever on top now. The Clock is ticking. What goes up must come down
February 5th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
wiz says:
Remember I exclued Marbury and Tinsley trying to be fair. Yall are crazy if you don’t think we’ll get busy. I’m sorry I left out M.”King of NY”Campbell. Please lets go back to Nike tournament battle of the best. Teams with the best record. Get homecourt advantage. Non political team. Please lets save basketball. We see how the N.B.A. criteria sometimes leave out the obvious deserving talents. NY all day. Much love to everybody else. WE RIGHT HERE WE AIN’T GOING ANYWHERE -DMX