Telfair has killed the proud tradition of the New York point guard

[jgod213]

Scoop Jackson's latest ESPN article, entitled "What happened to the New York City point guard?"

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/080715

With Chris Paul coming from Winston-Salem, N.C., Deron Williams from Dallas, Tony Parker imported from France, Derrick Rose from Chi, Brandon Jennings from L.A., Jerryd Bayless from Arizona and Ty Lawson from Maryland, it seems like the day of the New York City "point god" is over. A position it seems was created by those from New York is no longer the cornerstone of the city's relevance in the basketball workforce.

once Sebastian Telfair did not turn into the star many (including this writer) expected him to become, the Krylon was on the wall that the city's forever-long run as the producer of the greatest point guards on Earth had come to an unpredictably sad end.

Thought this article was going to go into a article-long Bassy bash, but it ended up going in a different direction...

Why conquer the world when New York is a more difficult challenge?

Which is why it is only us -- the outsiders -- who sweat Bassy and use his professional career (so far) as the Malachi (the last chapter) of basketball in New York. The game is so much bigger than just the NBA. The point gods still exist in New York. They just happen to be doing something different

Jackson seems to indicate that, to many (if not most) NY pg's, it's more important for them to conquer NY than the NBA.  He uses Kenny Satterfield and Andre Barrett and their street success' to justify this arguement; however, i have a tough time believing that both of these players' dreams are not to play and succeed in the NBA, but to be a new york point guard icon. 

I don't think that failure to live up to hype in the NBA can be defended by saying "it's not as important as conquering New York for these kids."  let's call Bassy, Satterfield, and Barrett out for what they really are, which are good ball players who aren't good enough to run an NBA team.

[Cooldude5t5]

I thought Marbury killed that tradition before telfair.

[BballTim]

I thought Marbury killed that tradition before telfair.

  How about Pearl Washington?

[libermaniac]

I thought Marbury killed that tradition before telfair.

Kenny Anderson killed it before Marbury.

[Celtic]

I live in Brooklyn, and people in New York City overall take themselves way more seriously, than any else does. The reason why this isn't an issue is because no one cares, I've never thought of NYC as the point guard Mecca. Sure there are a lot of good ball players here, but there's a lot of good ball players in every big city.

There was a commercial this season on the Knicks channel I believe, and it led off with the line, "Here in New York we think we've invented everything about basketball..." The statement wasn't followed up with a reason why this was true or untrue, it simply continued as if that was a truth. Anyone that knows anything about basketball knows it was invented in Springfield Mass, and no matter how many point guards come out of New York, that's not going to change.

[pearljammer10]

Telfairs still young. What is he like 23? This would have been his first year out of college in the NBA. If you look at it that way he spent 4 years in the NBA rather than college, he can only get better. I think there is still hope for Telfair.

[RebusRankin]

Stockton-Spokane
Magic-Lansing
Robertson-Indianapolis
Isiah Thomas-Chicago
Payton-Oakland
Kidd-Oakland
Cousy-Boston
Nash-Canada
Frazier- Atlanta
Rodgers- Philadelphia
Mo Cheeks- Chicago
DJ- San Pedro

It seems to me that the tradition of the NY pg is highly overrated as several of the top pgs in NBA history aren't from NY.

[CelticBalla32]

Bassy still rules the world, so this article means nothing. Especially since it was written by Scoop Jackson, who once said that Telfair would be better than LeBron James.