http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/sports/basketball/18nash.html?_r=1&ref=basketball&oref=slogin By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI The Mike D’Antoni Show is coming to New York this fall, with apologies to the Phoenix Suns. Steve Nash, a two-time N.B.A. most valuable player and energizing force, will be played by Stephon Marbury, a disgruntled and fading star who missed 58 performances this season for a variety of reasons, including the death of his father, his well-publicized feuds with Isiah Thomas, and season-ending ankle surgery. Amare Stoudemire, a high-flying, show-stopping, thrill-a-minute dunking machine, will be played by Eddy Curry, an overweight, slow-footed center whose lack of rebounding and hustle earned him a seat on the bench for long stretches. The 6-foot-3 Leandro Barbosa, a lightning-quick shooting guard who can score buckets of easy points in transition, will be played by Nate Robinson, a 5-9 crowd favorite who can leap tall defenders in a single bound but is an erratic shooter and a defensive liability when his feet are planted on the hardwood. Nash, who ran the Phoenix offense under D’Antoni the last four seasons, was in Midtown on Friday in his role as the founding partner of a new company, Mission Product, which makes a skin-care line for athletes. When Nash finished his pitch, he began comparing two casts: the up-tempo Suns, who earned three Pacific Division titles in the last four seasons, and the downtrodden Knicks, who have won 23, 33 and 23 games in the last three seasons. Nash, whose stellar play helped D’Antoni earn a four-year, $24 million deal to coach the Knicks, said that despite what he and everyone else saw on paper, the Knicks would be a much-improved production next season by playing in a system that made the Suns the most entertaining show in the league. “First of all, I think it’s a mistake to think that to play in Mike’s system, Stephon Marbury will have to play exactly the way I play,” Nash said. “You can play in any system and make it cater to you and you cater to it, so the system becomes an amalgamation of the individuals and the system. So it’s a mistake to try to envision Stephon playing like me or someone else playing like Amare Stoudemire.” Nash then gave an assist to Marbury, his fellow point guard. “I think Stephon can be fantastic in that system,” Nash said. “He’s a great athlete, a much better athlete than I am. He’s explosive and we’ve seen throughout his career the numbers he can put up. The whole thing will be, is he happy and successful and enjoying his basketball life again? It’s been tough around here to enjoy yourself the past few years.” Nash did agree that it still takes a certain kind of athlete to play in a certain kind of system. “It is true that you want to lean toward your preferences of players,” he said. “But I think that if you’re a professional basketball player and a talented and intelligent player, you can adapt to any system.” Nash was asked if any one player on the Knicks could be productive in a Suns uniform. “Nate Robinson, obviously, can be a Barbosa-type player for sure, and David Lee can play in any kind of system,” he said. “Quentin Richardson has already played in our system.” And then there’s Curry and the defensively challenged Zach Randolph, neither of whom will ever be mistaken for Stoudemire, or even Shaquille O’Neal, now in the twilight of his career. “But at the same time, a guy like Amare is not going to get defensive rebounds like those two guys, and rebounding is the best way to start a fast break,” Nash said. “That’s something that we didn’t necessarily have. Although Amare is one of the best players in the world, getting a rebound and throwing it out is not one of his strong suits.” Nash then glanced at the two rosters and looked up quickly. “Now don’t get carried away with making these kinds of comparisons,” he said with a straight face, “because you can only disappoint yourself.” As for D’Antoni, Nash said that “people are misjudging him, thinking he can only coach the system we used in Phoenix.“ “But Mike is very intelligent and he can coach a number of different ways,” Nash said, adding: “The Knicks haven’t been winning, and you just can’t turn a switch on, so you have to have patience. But Mike will put an exciting product on the floor with a chance to win every night. No matter the cast of characters, he’ll make basketball fun again for the players and the fans, and that will be great for New York.” --

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