Knicks are NBA’s dysfunctional family

There’s the root of the problem with the New York Knicks: It’s very easy to visualize Stephon Marbury, Isiah Thomas and James Dolan all doing that.

An atmosphere equal parts selfishness and fear rules at Madison Square Garden. All three of those men in starring roles in this ridiculous production have far bigger egos than are deserved, and it just can’t be that way.

They say New York is supposed to be chest-puffy, nose-in-the-air and Sinatra-like “My Way.” Not if that confidence inhibits cooperation, though.

Red Holzman’s Knicks were about teamwork. Pat Riley’s Knicks were about hard work. These Knicks just don’t work, and they make for a cautionary tale for any organization.

Leaders can’t go about their business believing they don’t need you.

We knew going into this that Marbury might not get it. He failed to appreciate Kevin Garnett’s talent and work ethic when they started together in Minnesota, but there were good reasons for the Knicks to gamble on him in 2004. Thomas basically gave up a pile of nothing to get an outstanding player in his prime and bring him home, and Marbury initially played quite well for New York, even if he fell short of all the demands Larry Brown had for him.

It hasn’t lasted, and the once-strong support offered by Marbury toward Thomas hit a new low after Thomas decided to take Marbury out of the starting lineup. Marbury went nuts and threatened to publicize the dirt he had on Thomas. (Apparently it worked, as Thomas ignored a unanimous vote by Marbury’s teammates not to let him play against the Clippers after skipping a game in Phoenix.)

Speaking of publicized dirt, Marbury was brought into court before the season as a witness in the sexual-harassment trial Thomas lost — and Marbury had to admit to an extramarital affair with a team intern on her birthday in his truck outside a strip club. The trial validated just how much Marbury has insisted the whole Knicks operation revolve around him — jobs for relatives, for example — despite him never having won a playoff game as a Knick or having made an All-Star Game as a Knick.

It remains to be seen whether the latest adversity for Marbury — his father died Sunday night after feeling chest pains at the Suns-Knicks game — brings things into any better focus for the kid who isn’t a kid anymore at 30.

Thomas is the one of the three Knicks leaders we’ve known the longest. No doubt his fiercely competitive nature served him well as a player — aside from thinking he was better than Michael Jordan, which just made Thomas look like a petulant jerk. But now we have to wonder how much of Detroit’s success in the late 1980s really arose from the leadership of Coach Chuck Daly.

Thomas hasn’t done right by the Toronto Raptors, Continental Basketball Association, Indiana Pacers or Knicks in coaching or management roles. His blind spot for players with talent but no work ethic is staggering: With Marbury, Jerome James and Eddy Curry already in New York, Thomas brought in another dump truck in Zach Randolph, whom we noted two seasons ago sat at the end of Portland’s bench against the Lakers — while everyone else huddled around Coach Nate McMillan — and told a ball boy to go get him something to eat. Even Thomas’ greatest discovery — Tracy McGrady, whom Thomas drafted out of high school for Toronto — has been far less than he could have been. McGrady has never won a playoff series … just like Marbury.

The Knicks losing,104-59, to Boston in their only TNT appearance of the season was a staggering representation of Thomas’ inability to inspire. The harassment trial showed his domineering personality at a whole new level, with Anucha Browne Sanders also saying Thomas said of the Knicks’ season-ticket holders: “I don’t give (an expletive) about these white people.”

Now we can say Thomas is a petulant jerk, period. It’s easier to see now that everyone has joined Michael Jordan in being more successful than Thomas.

And that brings us to Dolan, whom most everyone believes will be the problem to stay long after Marbury and Thomas are discarded. Dolan is why everyone is depressed and afraid for their jobs. Not as bad as sexual harassment yet reflective of a fear-flowing state of affairs, Knicks public-relations staffers don’t let reporters speak one on one with players. Anytime reporters do speak to anyone, staffers must eavesdrop and document the conversations in their Blackberries.

Lakers fans rightly worried about Jerry Buss’ son Jim running amuck in the future should look East and see just how much worse things could be. The only chance for Knicks fans is Dolan’s accomplished and respectable father, Charles. He has been nosing around lately less at Cablevision and more around the Knicks, whose fans can only hope the father does something about the way his wild child has polluted the Garden.

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