Asked five different ways whether they get a little more hyped for one of their celebrated mano-a-mano encounters, neither would offer even a hint that yesterday's game meant any more than if he had been playing against any other guard in the NBA.

"Just another player," the Nets' Marbury said of Iverson - the player the Sixers liked just a little bit more and made the No. 1 overall pick in 1996 draft.

"I don't get into that," Iverson said of Marbury, who many consider the best young point guard in the league. "Every player in the NBA is really good.

"Everybody else can make a big deal out of that, but I never make a big deal out of individual matchups. When you do that, the guy you don't talk about can be the one that comes up and bites you."

OK, we get it. No yada, yada. No blah, blah, blah.

Four years into their NBA careers, Iverson and Marbury have learned that the politically correct stance is the safest one to take concerning another superstar player you will face four times every season for the foreseeable future.

And that's a good thing. It's a sign of maturity that can only make the on-court rivalry that much better between the two best young guards in the Eastern Conference - with all due respect to Milwaukee's Ray Allen and Toronto's "Air Canada," Vince Carter.

The first few times they faced each other in the NBA, Iverson and Marbury had their matchups deteriorate into an "I'll-top-you" contest seemingly oblivious to anything else around them. Not so yesterday. The Martin Luther King Day game, in front of more than 20,000 at the First Union Center, was about the Sixers and Nets, not "Starbury" and "The Answer."

The Sixers pulled out a 101-96 victory in large part because Iverson (34 points, five assists, five rebounds) continued to display the all-around game that keeps his teammates involved and has produced eight victories in the last 10 games.

And while New Jersey lost its second in a row, Marbury (31 points, nine assists) again played like the "God-made point guard" he claims to be. Marbury's play has allowed the Nets to climb out of their 2-15 start and get to a point (15-22) where they can at least think about qualifying for the playoffs.

The bottom line is that both players are learning basketball is more about "we" than "I" and individual glory shines brightest when your team is winning.

"I think that they are both trying to win," said Sixers coach Larry Brown, who in the past has worried about Iverson getting too locked into an individual showdown against another star guard. "I've been watching Stephon the last four weeks with a lot of interest. He's got his team playing really well.

"I'm asking Allen to do the things he does for us. Both kids have grown up a lot. They're so competitive and sometimes that comes out, but both are trying to play the right way.

"When a team is struggling, it always seems to point at one guy. I haven't heard a lot of comments about how [Iverson's and Marbury's] teams are winning, and it might be because of the way they are playing."

Even though they don't choose to throw kerosene on the fire, the careers of Iverson and Marbury are always going to be linked. They can't help but be.

Before the '96 draft, it was clear that if the Sixers did not choose one with the first pick, they were going to choose the other.

Marbury, who played just one season at Georgia Tech, was considered the better point guard, but the Sixers decided Iverson, who played two seasons at Georgetown, was the slightly better player.

Iverson was selected as the NBA's Rookie of the Year; last season, he was an all-NBA first-teamer as the Sixers made their first playoff appearance in nearly a decade. Nobody is going to argue the Sixers made the wrong call.

Marbury began his career with the Minnesota Timberwolves before leveraging his way into a trade to New Jersey. While he has not yet achieved any of the individual accolades Iverson has, Marbury has not done anything to indicate he would not have been just as worthy a top pick.

Marbury leads the all-time matchups with Iverson, 5-4. Marbury has averaged 21.3 points and 8.8 assists in the nine games; Iverson has averaged 27.5 points and 4.2 assists.

Nobody would complain about having either player.

Iverson is a scorer with point-guard skills.

Marbury is a point guard with scoring ability.

The roles they play are so different now that they don't even guard each other full time anymore.

Still, both are extremely efficient at what they do, and now that they do it more within the framework of a team game, they have become even better.

Iverson is going to take the most shots for the Sixers because that's what he does and it's the best way for his team to be successful.

Forget about him being a full-time point guard. He's not and never will be. Iverson may have a point guard's frame, but he's a two guard, a scorer, a shooter.

Still, slowly but surely, A.I. has learned to trust his teammates and now is consciously using some of his point-guard attributes to put them into positions to help win games.

And while Marbury started the season gunning as if he was determined to copy Iverson's conversion from the point to off-guard, he's now looking for teammates as much as shots.

Marbury still shoots a lot for a point guard, but his ratio of shots to assists, approximately two-to-one, is something the rest of the Nets can live with.

"I think it just comes with maturity," said Nets forward Keith Van Horn, who almost became Iverson's teammate. "I think it's also come with the fact that they both realize that if they feed off their teammates, they're each going to play better.

"It's going to be a great rivalry for years to come because they are definitely two of the top guards in the league."

It's a rivalry that will be a lot of fun to watch, even if they both refuse to acknowledge it exists