Stephon Marbury says Larry Brown tried to kick him off the Olympic squad

Even before their disastrous partnership on the Knicks, Larry Brown wanted to get rid of Stephon Marbury.

The point guard revealed that Brown attempted to boot Marbury off the 2004 USA Olympic squad, sending assistant Gregg Popovich to relay the message.

“Popovich brought me downstairs, in the dungeon of the hotel, and was asking for me to go home,” Marbury told the New Yorker, “and that they would tell the media that I hurt my knee. I was, like, ‘What?’”

A heated exchange at practice proceeded Popovich’s visit. Marbury said he was upset at Brown’s conflicting instructions, and, “Like, literally, I ran up in his face.”

But Marbury didn’t want to leave.

“I was, like, ‘Look, man. Why don’t you [Popovich] tell Larry Brown to come down here and tell me in my face, and you stop doing his dirty work,’” Marbury said. “He was, like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna do exactly that.’ He called Larry Brown, and then Larry Brown: ‘Oh, what is this I hear you talking about?’ And I said, ‘Exactly. Why you had your assistant coach come and talk to me? You could’ve came and talked to me like a man.’ And then, after that, I told him, ‘Look, you’re not gonna have not one problem with me. Don’t worry; I’m not gonna say nothing. I’m gonna do my job.”

The Olympics in Athens was a disaster for the Americans. They lost three times, including a 19-point defeat to Puerto Rico, and barely managed a bronze medal. It was humiliating for a roster that included LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson.

Marbury was the starting point guard but said the friction with Brown was immediate.

“We were all sitting down all around the table. And everybody was asking everybody about what we gonna contribute, basically,” Marbury said. “It got around to me, and everybody already said everything that we needed to do. So I said, ‘Let’s just make sure we do one thing: let’s not forget to have fun.’

“Larry Brown goes, ‘Ha. This guy. He’s talking about having fun.’ I’m looking around, like, ‘Did I say something wrong?’ From then on, it was just, like, it was on.”

A year later, the Knicks owner James Dolan hired Brown to guide a team with Marbury as its star. It was somehow worse than the Olympics. The team finished a drama-filled season at 23-59 despite owning one of the league’s highest payrolls. Brown was fired and fought the Dolan in court to recoup the rest of his contract.

As a Hall of Fame coach, Brown had gotten the best out of Iverson, Reggie Miller and David Robinson. But Marbury, a Coney Island product, said he was too independent to click with Brown.

“I don’t think that he liked me,” Marbury said. “Because I wasn’t one of the guys that he could talk to any kind of way. I stood up for myself, and he had to respect me— he didn’t like that.”

A year later, the Knicks were sued lost a suit to Anucha Browne Sanders for sexual harassment. Marbury testified to, among other things, asking an MSG intern to get in the back of his SUV for a quick sex romp. A judge found MSG liable and awarded Sanders, a Garden executive, $11.5 million.

“I did something that men did, and I paid for it. It’s something that happened,” Marbury told the New Yorker. “The lawsuit wasn’t about me. I got dragged into it, to make the case. The lawsuit was filed against Isiah Thomas.”

Marbury was dumped by the Knicks in 2008, and resurrected his career in China. He is currently a coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters of the Chinese League — which is on hiatus due to the coronavirus crisis — and pledged to donate 10 million N95 masks for New York hospital workers and other first responders handling the pandemic