NEW YORK (AP) In a move that reshapes the futures of two franchises, one of the greatest scoring point guards in NBA history found a way to bring a similar player, Stephon Marbury, back home.
The 26-year-old playmaker from Coney Island, Brooklyn, the player whose lifetime highlight was winning the city high school championship on the floor of Madison Square Garden, is joining the New York Knicks.
``He said it was his dream come true,'' said Isiah Thomas, the still-new Knicks president who pulled off Monday's blockbuster trade with the Phoenix Suns.
Mortgaging the Knicks' future and expelling several of former team president Scott Layden's acquisitions, Thomas dealt Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, Maciej Lampe, the rights to Milos Vujanic and two first-round draft picks to Phoenix for Marbury, Penny Hardaway and Cezary Trebanski.
Suddenly, New York has acquired the type of high-scoring point guard that Knicks fans have longed for since Walt Frazier left in the late '70s.
``It's definitely a home run hit by Isiah,'' Knicks coach Don Chaney said.
For Phoenix, it's a case of sacrificing the present with an eye toward the future. The Suns insisted the Knicks take Hardaway, who has $30 million and two seasons remaining on his contract, so that Phoenix will be at least $8 million under the salary cap next summer when the available free agents include Kobe Bryant.
If the Suns can make another salary-clearing move, they could join Utah, Denver, San Antonio and the Los Angeles Clippers as the only teams other than the Lakers who can offer Bryant anything near the maximum salary.
``This is a big picture kind of move, and a bold move,'' owner Jerry Colangelo said. ``We didn't have flexibility under the cap, and we were hamstrung by some contracts. This allows us to be a player in free agency if we choose to. This is not a talent-for-talent deal.''
The deal stunned the remaining Knicks, who learned of it as they arrived at practice.
Thomas and Suns president Bryan Colangelo finalized it at 3 a.m., and Colangelo woke up Marbury with a telephone call to deliver the news.
Marbury flew to New York for a physical and then joined the Knicks in Cleveland, where he was expected to play Tuesday night against the Cavaliers.
At 14-21, the Knicks are fifth in a weak Atlantic Division.
But with a starting lineup of Marbury, Allan Houston, Keith Van Horn, Kurt Thomas and Dikembe Mutombo, they should have enough talent to snap their two-year streak of missing the playoffs.
``On paper, talent-wise, this puts us right up there at the top,'' Van Horn said. ``But that's just paper.''
Marbury was averaging a team-high 20.8 points for the Suns, who are last in the Pacific Division. They will now rebuild around their young nucleus of Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire and rookie Zarko Cabarkapa.
Phoenix also joins the growing list of teams to take a chance on Marbury and then scrap those plans a couple years later. This is the fourth trade of Marbury's career.
``I think it's a good story for him to go back to New York City. He's probably the best player that's ever come out of New York City, the best guard certainly, and I'd like to see him go home and live up to all of those expectations,'' Bryan Colangelo said.
Hardaway, unproductive since signing a seven-year, $87 million contract, will back up what can arguably be called the best starting backcourt in the East _ Marbury and Houston.
The need for an upgrade at point guard became clear to Thomas as he watched Minnesota's Sam Cassell, Chicago's Jamal Crawford and the Nets' Jason Kidd dominate the Knicks in three recent home losses.
``Watching what happened to our point guard position the last couple of games, it's pretty easy to identify where some of the needs were,'' said Thomas, whose move added more than $100 million future salary to the Garden payroll.
The Knicks will be over the salary cap through 2008, without a first-round pick in June's draft and without another first-round pick somewhere down the road.
They also gave up on two promising European prospects, Vujanic and Lampe, and threw in $3 million in cash.
``Even if we could get under the salary cap, we couldn't get far enough under to get a guy like Marbury,'' said Thomas, who indicated more trades could be forthcoming. ``I still think we need to get a little more athletic. We still need to get a little better. I don't think we're there yet, but at least we're making strides.''
McDyess, who played for the Suns in 1997-98, returned to action last month after missing more than a year because of knee surgery. McDyess took for Kurt Thomas in the Knicks' starting lineup, then quickly lost the job and became expendable.
Ward, whose contract can be bought out by Jan. 10, is expected to be waived by the Suns later this week. Phoenix will keep Eisley, who will share time at point guard with Leandro Barbosa.
``Are we going to probably take a little step backward? Yeah, at the beginning,'' Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. ``We think in the long run this is the way to get to a higher level of play. Short term, a little pain. Long term, we hope is a good gain.''