Ever since the Nets traded Stephon Marbury to Phoenix for Jason Kidd in July, the talk in New Jersey has been that Kidd, with his pass-first mentality and league-leading assist totals, will make Keith Van Horn a better player. Kidd has said it. Van Horn has said it. And the Nets' brass is banking on it.

But Stephon Marbury, now a proud member of the Suns, wants to see it before he believes it. Today, before the Suns played the Knicks in an exhibition game at America West Arena, he called the notion nonsense.

"If it takes for Jason Kidd to make Keith Van Horn better, then do it," Marbury said. "But the only person that can do it is yourself. Nobody else can do it for you. For someone else to make someone else better, it just doesn't happen in the N.B.A."