Camby brings a lot of baggage to the Knicks

Sporting News, The, Dec 14, 1998 by Dave D'Alessandro

There was an autographed photo of David Robinson in Marcus Camby's bedroom when he was a freshman at UMass. The inscription read, "To Marcus: I've seen you play. You have most of what it takes. Do you have the drive?" Some five years later, we're all still asking the same question about this aerodynamic, 6-11 forward, one of those 20-somethings whose middle name ought to be "Oughta be."

Camby is one of those intriguing subjects that accompany the start of each season, a round peg in a square hole that exists on a competitive dimension he has never experienced before. The Knicks can expect endless scrutiny for making this happen, as it isn't often that a team can exchange a trusted cornerstone for an enigma and not feel a profound change--for better or worse.

Camby was traded from Toronto on draft night for Charles Oakley, and if ever there were two forwards as dissimilar as Oakley and Camby, we've yet to meet them. Oakley, you know all about. Camby? You might call him the Anti-Oak. Where Oakley is rock solid, Camby is maddeningly inconsistent. Where Oakley is as constant as the Northern Star, Camby is as changeable as the wind. Where Oakley plays hurt and plays hard all the time, Camby seems capable of neither. Where Oakley never had a teammate who didn't regard him as the team's soul, Camby has yet to have one who respects him.

But another glaring difference between the two explains why the Knicks believed they had to make this move: Oakley, a week shy of 35, is landlocked, unathletic and near the end of his career; Camby, 24, has abundant physical talent with the potential to mature. Or so they hope.

Everybody associated with both teams has gone around and around on this, and you can call it a wash. The Knicks, of course, talk about the athleticism they gained--not to mention the fact Camby led the league in shot-blocking--and Raptors G.M. Glen Grunwald says Camby "will thrive in a situation with veterans to push him." All of that could prove true, and it is irrefutable he can change games at the defensive end.

Yet, until Camby proves otherwise, he's a risk. Ask anyone in Toronto, where they remember he managed to suit up for only 63 games in each of his first two seasons, would sit out for weeks at a time with minor hurts and has no discernible offensive skill to speak of. Some even claim his defensive skill level is mediocre at best and destined to get worse now that he'll have to defend the perimeter, with Larry Johnson taking over Oakley's 4-spot.

Worst of all is Camby is high maintenance and takes too many nights off. Said one joyous Raptors official, "I'll give it a month till Patrick (Ewing) punches him in the head."

Lest you forget, Camby has acquired this reputation after two years, buffeted by a difficult ghetto upbringing that few of us could understand, surrounded by leeches he thought were his friends, then thrust into a quasi-professional organization that had no direction, no talent and no familiarity among its endless carousel of players.

"I want a clean slate," says Camby, 20 pounds heavier after an offseason with a personal trainer. How will he handle it? Oakley has a hunch.

"He's a young superstar," Oakley says sarcastically. "I wish him luck in this system. It's not going to be easy, unless you're just a workaholic. It's got to be about work, knowing you might get two or three shots some nights. ... It's a question mark."

Indeed, that's what Camby represents, as the Knicks enter a crossroads. Either Camby will become the key transitional player they need to emerge from the Jurassic Age or he'll be a vivid reminder of the time a franchise sold its soul.

Dave D'Alessandro covers the NBA for the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger. E-mail him at daved@sportingnews.com.

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