By PAT REICHART
Every Friday in NYP TV Sports, our sports television pullout that appears in the middle of the print edition and online, we present “Five Questions for ⦔
This is the 6th Question, where we post more of my interview.
This week I spoke with Mike Breen.
Q: You were in Detroit for the ugly Pistons-Pacers brawl a few years ago, and, this season, you called the action during the Knicks-Nuggets fight. Do you think the NBA has a discipline problem?
A: No, not at all. I think the league has done a great job at curtailing that. I thought for awhile that it was going to an area where there were too many incidents, but I think it’s been much better. Obviously, the fight against Denver was a bad situation, but I think, overall, with the punishments increasing for fighting, with the fines increasing for technical fouls, I think the league has done a very good job of bringing it back to a much better place than it was several years ago.
Q: Besides winning, what else is Isiah Thomas doing this season that Larry Brown didn’t do last year?
A: He’s gotten through to a couple of key players. Eddy Curry has never been a consistent player, but Isiah has instilled a confidence in Curry that now, all of a sudden, he wants to dominate every night. Now, Curry still has a long way to go defensively and with rebounding and shot blocking, but offensively, he’s become a force. Isiah has somehow gotten into his head – I think it’s alot more mental than physical what Thomas has done for him. The other guy Isiah has gotten though to is Marbury. Isiah has gotten Marbury to sacrifice his offensive game for the sake of the team and to be a more positive leader – that’s something no one else has been able to do. Those have been the biggest differences this year.
Q: Things did not look great for the Knicks at the start of the season. When did everything start to change?
A: Probably sometime in December. November was pretty bad. They were getting booed every game at home. You had Thomas getting booed, the “Fire Thomas” chants, and Marbury and Curry getting booed every time they were coming in and out of the games, and it was bad. For Marbury and Curry to battle through that kind of atmosphere and now become such key players, it shows you a little something. They do have that fight and are ready to bounce back a little bit.
