Four games into his first season under coach Larry Brown, the back page of one New York tabloid Friday already had Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury "ON THE BLOCK."

Never mind that the germ of the headline was buried 10 paragraphs deep in a story that was based on unidentified sources and claimed only that the Knicks had "put out feelers" about trading Marbury.

But after consulting with Brown before meeting Golden State late Friday night in Oakland, Marbury laughed off the report.

"Coach pretty much just said that's regular stuff," Marbury said. "He told me that we were losing right now, so somebody's name has to come into it. But I'm not worried about that stuff."

Neither is Brown, who joked that maybe the media should have fired him first. No doubt, that's next.