Marbury and Hardaway to New York was trade of the decade

Everyone is doing their “of the decade” pieces right now. Most are focusing on the best or biggest players, teams, moments or disappointments of the last ten years. While reading numerous different takes on the best in Phoenix sports, I realized one of the most impactful moments wasn’t getting much attention.

The date was January 6, 2004. The Phoenix Suns were an abysmal 12-22. Interm head coach Mike D’Antoni was struggling to clean up the mess left by Frank Johnson and hoping for a future with the organization.

The New York Knicks were a team who had made the playoffs fourteen of the previous sixteen seasons and were in the playoff hunt in the weak Eastern Conference.

That day the fate of both franchises changed, as the Phoenix Suns sent Stephon Marbury, Cezary Trybanski and Penny Hardaway to the New York Knicks for Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, Maciej Lampe, the rights to Milos Vujanic, two first-round draft picks and cash.

The deal gave the Knicks an all-star point guard for their playoff run and gave the Suns between $20 and $25 million dollars in savings.

“This is a big picture kind of move, and a bold move,” Jerry Colangelo told reporters at the time. “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.”

That “flexibility” gave the Suns the money to sign Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson the following offseason. It also gave birth to Mike D’Antoni’s Seven Second or Less Era.

The Knicks headed in a decidedly different direction. After the deal they snuck into the playoffs that season with a sub .500 record. They subsequently were bounced from the playoffs in the first round by the New Jersey Nets.

The trade was the first major move Isaiah Thomas made as the Knicks general manager and was a sign of things to come. Since the trade, the Knicks have made the playoffs once (2004), have a record of 177 wins and 302 losses, have had 6 head coaches and ran Thomas out of town.

Over that same time, the Suns have made the playoffs four times, appeared in two conference finals, had a two time league MVP (paid for by the savings the deal provided), won 311 games, had a book written about them, were critically acclaimed as one of the most exciting teams in league history and have only had three different coaches. Oh and they ran Bryan Colangelo out of town (not everything can be perfect).

Even to this day the Suns are reaping the rewards of that deal (see Steve Nash) while the Knicks are paying for it attempting to free themselves from salary cap hell.

While the saving was the major benefit to the Suns, a forgotten part of the deal was the two first round draft picks the Suns picked up as well. The picks proved to be valuable, for the Utah Jazz. The Suns traded both picks to the Jazz in February of 2004 to get rid of Tom Gugliotta’s salary. The Jazz wound up with the 16th pick in that seasons draft and also hold the unprotected rights to the New York Knicks 2010 pick (one that will undoubtedly be a lottery selection).

For those reasons, the trade will easily go down as the biggest and best trade of the decade for the Phoenix Suns and arguably in the league.

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