|
|
|
Thursday, March 29, 2001
Marbury shut down with pinkie injury
Associated Press
|
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – All-Star guard Stephon Marbury will
miss the remainder of the New Jersey Nets' injury-plagued season
with a ruptured tendon in his left pinkie.
| |  | |
| Marbury |
"Stephon has been playing with this condition for the past
several months," Nets president Rod Thorn said Wednesday. "The
pain intensified over the past two weeks, and the Nets medical
staff felt there was a need to address the problem surgically as
soon as possible."
The decision to sit Marbury comes less than a week after Kenyon
Martin, the first pick in last year's NBA Draft, broke his right
leg for the second time in a year.
Marbury averaged 23.9 points and 7.6 assists in 67 games. He
scored a career-high 50 points against the Los Angeles Lakers on
Feb. 13, and he had his first career triple-double on Jan. 20, when
he had 33 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds against Chicago.
Nets coach Byron Scott said Marbury had a great season, his best
in five years in the NBA.
"He's 24 years old and he's already one of the best point
guards in the league," Scott said. "He has some things he has to
work on on the defensive end, but I think in the next couple of
years it won't be a question of who's the best point guard. There's
questions now. People say (Gary) Payton, (Jason) Kidd. In the next
couple of years there won't be any question."
Marbury is the only player in the league to rank in the Top 10
in both scoring and assists. The All-Star appearance was his first
in five career seasons.
The Nets have been rocked by injuries this season.
Guard Kerry Kittles has missed the entire year after undergoing knee surgery. Forward Keith Van Horn also had a hairline fracture of his fibula in training camp and missed 32 games.
Forward-center Jamie Feick has missed more than 60 games with an Achilles' tendon injury. Forward-guard Kendall Gill has missed more than 40 with tendinitis in his knee, and center Jim McIlvaine has
missed more than 35 with back and calf injuries.
The Nets will lose more than 340 manpower games to injury this season.
The Nets signed forward Mark Strickland to a 10-day contract Wednesday. The six-year veteran played 46 games this season for Denver, the team New Jersey played Wednesday.
"Everybody I have been seeing in the city, I went to the store to get some sneakers, told me that gym is jinxed," Strickland said of joining the Nets. "I'm just here to play, have a little fun, and we get some Ws out of these last few games."
 Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|
|
ALSO SEE
Patchwork Nets still to much for fading Nuggets
|
|
