The fact that Isiah Thomas was able to trade for Stephon Marbury - the very player the Nets dumped on July 18, 2001, to land Kidd from Phoenix - makes the first-round series between New Jersey and New York that opens tomorrow all the more intriguing.

Kidd joined the Nets and resurrected a dormant franchise, taking it to two straight NBA Finals. Marbury has yet to lead a team out of the first round in three tries (twice with Minnesota, once with Phoenix), yet the two players are frequently mentioned as the premier point guards in the league.

Think Marbury doesn't have something to prove in his fourth crack at the postseason?

"Being the competitor that he is, he wants that very badly," Penny Hardaway, who came to the Knicks in the Marbury deal, said yesterday at the Knicks' practice facility in Greenburgh. "Seeing guys that got drafted with him - Kobe (Bryant) getting three championships, Allen Iverson taking the Sixers to the Finals that one year. And now being traded for Jason and Jason taking the Nets to the Finals the last couple years, maybe that bothers him because he wants that same thing.

"It should bother him. The only way to erase any of that (negative perception) is winning."

As for Marbury, he only seemed bothered yesterday when nearly every question directed at him involved a comparison with Kidd.

"I don't got no comment on that," Marbury said when asked if he thought of himself and Kidd as the two best point guards. "It doesn't matter that I'm playing against Jason."