Madison Square Garden -- Stephon Marbury, the Knicks' talented point-guard, who has a history of making every team he plays for worse, has conceded his inability to be an "on-court leader" and agreed to concentrate, instead, on leading the team "grammatically."

Marbury immediately evidenced his new commitment, saying, "We can't be playing any worser." This was a reference to the Knicks' present, dreadful slide which, if not stanched soon, will assure their exclusion from the playoffs come April.

Marbury begins every season asserting that he's undergone "an attitude change" conducive to being the leader, finally, his teams have wanted him to be. But he agreed, after a Tuesday afternoon meeting with Knicks' management and coaching staff, to cease making these annual declarations and focus his energies on upgrading the team's articulateness.

"Ahma do that," he said. "Coach and Isiah [Thomas] axed me to step it up in terms of, you know, setting an example of good grammar. 'Ahma bring it every night, and I aint gon' be happy wid nothing else but raisin' my teammates' grammar. You know what 'ahm sayin'?"

Reporters shook their heads no, but were fascinated.

"We may not play at a high level every night, but we gon' articulate at one," he said. "Y'all can take that to the bank."