We ran a quick piece yesterday on Marc Berman's New York Post report that Jamal Crawford waved media over to a confrontation in Stephon Marbury's locker this week. Given the conflicting nature of one of the subject's beliefs about the incident, it seems only fair to run (part of) Crawford's response.
From Crawford's blog for Newsday:
The headlines read, "Crawford Doesn't Want Marbury Around." So if you read the story that came out in Marc Berman's blog, he goes on to say that while a writer was in front of Stephon's locker when Steph got out the shower, that there was some sort of argument and I'm in the background telling people to watch those guys argue.
Problem is the story WASN'T TRUE!!!
When Steph came out of the shower I was already gone out of the locker room! I did come back in the locker room to get my cell phone that I had forgot. I saw a lot of reporters around Steph's locker (they are always there) and I picked up my cell phone and left...So when I heard about this the next day, I went and told Steph abut what Berman had wrote and told him that it wasn't true. Steph wasn't worried about it, but I didn't want him to have to read something like that before I could talk to him. That's how teams fall apart.
And given Berman's reaction to Crawford confronting him, it looks like we can put this one to bed.
More from Crawford:
[Berman] comes over and the first thing he does is [apologize].
I explain the situation to him and the same story from the locker room that night that I just told you guys and he says, "I was told that's what happened." I said, "So you didn't actually see it? This is just what you've been told. You've been around me four years, have I EVER did anything like throw a teammate under the bus?" He says "No," so then I said, "So why would I do it now? Why, when were trying to build team chemistry, do something like that?"
He couldn't really answer me, so I said, "Well, now I'm going to have to write about you on my blog." So there it is! Haaa...
Good to see the Knicks' guard taking the situation in stride and handling it right away both in the locker room and with the media. That said, it's a bit discouraging to see Berman - a writer I respect - reporting a story without attribution as though he saw it firsthand and then backing away from it under the it's-what-I-was-told defense. The guy typically does an excellent job covering the Knicks, and here's hoping he's able to avoid this sort of situation in the future.