Author Topic: Stephon Marbury Leaves The Knicks... (Read 462 times)

Now_Im_Not_Banned · « **on:** November 13, 2007, 06:50:41 PM »

Guard Stephon Marbury leaves Knicks, Thomas says he's welcome back

By BOB BAUM, AP Sports Writer
November 13, 2007

PHOENIX (AP) -- Stephon Marbury has left the New York Knicks and there is no word on when, or even if, he might rejoin the team.

Marbury was absent from the team's morning shootaround, and failed to show up when the Knicks played the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.

Coach Isiah Thomas would only confirm Marbury had left and that the guard would be welcome back.

"That is an in-house matter, and we'll continue to keep it in-house," Thomas said after the shootaround. "However, he is welcome back, and we want him as a member of this team."

WNBC New York and The New York Post reported Marbury sent them text messages to say he had Thomas' permission to leave the team.

"I would never leave my team on my own," Marbury told The Post. "What I'm telling you is that I got permission to leave from Isiah. He said I could go home."

Thomas would not confirm that he allowed Marbury to leave. In fact, the Knicks' coach avoided the subject altogether in his meeting with reporters before the Suns' game.

"We'll talk about the Phoenix Suns and the game at hand," he said. "Whatever matters we have in-house we'll try to keep in-house."

The Post reported on its Web site that Marbury had flown back to New York and did not plan to join the team in Los Angeles for its game against the Clippers on Wednesday night.

Marbury's absence followed a story in Tuesday's New York Daily News indicating the Knicks were trying to reduce his role or get rid of him. A trade seems unlikely, because Marbury is scheduled to earn $42 million over the next two seasons.

Several of Marbury's teammates said his departure took them by surprise, but they expressed no hard feelings.

"You always support your teammates," forward Jared Jeffries said. "A lot of people on the outside don't understand what guys go through with their family, their friends, with this team, with anything. Whenever somebody goes through a tough time you support your teammate."

Mardy Collins got the start in Marbury's place, but said he would love to have him back.

"Yeah, definitely. He's been nothing but good to me ever since I've been here. There's not a bad thing I can say about Steph," Collins said. "Whatever happens, happens. I'm just here and whenever my number is called I go out there and compete."

At the shootaround, Thomas said this was not the first time this kind of incident has happened.

"It seems like he and I go through this every November, then a couple of weeks go by and we kind of kiss and make up, then we go back to the business of trying to win basketball games."

Following a contentious relationship with former coach Larry Brown, Marbury soon learned playing for Thomas would not be any easier.

Early last season, Marbury found himself spending extended time on the bench in the second half of games, including some in which he didn't start the third period.

"... Make no mistake about it, if I don't get exactly what I want, then there'll be consequences," Thomas said then.

As president of the Knicks, Thomas brought Marbury back to his hometown in 2004 and the two seemed to be close. That changed, however, when Thomas also became the head coach last season.

"My relationship as a coach is definitely a different relationship as president," Thomas said. "When you're coaching, I don't think there's a player that I've ever coached that hasn't at some point in time not liked me. But that's what coaching's all about."

Now_Im_Not_Banned · « **Reply #1 on:** November 13, 2007, 08:02:28 PM »

Marbury's exit could lead to Thomas' departure

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
November 13, 2007

So, Stephon Marbury walked out on the New York Knicks. He just packed his bags and bailed on Tuesday, catching a flight out of Phoenix for Planet Starbury. This is what happens to a franchise when it’s turned over to knuckleheads and con men. From within, it implodes.

Today, Marbury.

Tomorrow, Isiah Thomas.

“I have one thing to say and that’s I got permission to leave,” Marbury countered in a text message Tuesday afternoon to the New York Post’s Marc Berman. “I would never leave my team on my own. What I’m telling you is that I got permission to leave from Isiah. He said I could go home.”

Well, Thomas left the impression on Tuesday morning at a shootaround that Marbury had left on his own, and that he had hoped his point guard would return for tonight’s game with the Phoenix Suns, or perhaps re-join the team in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Surprise, surprise: Someone with the Knicks isn’t telling the truth.

“No, I’m not coming to L.A. as of now,” Marbury said in the text to the Post.

Who knows who’s fibbing here, and frankly, who cares anymore? As much as ever, Thomas and Marbury deserve one another. Once, these two turned together on former coach Larry Brown and Anucha Browne Sanders, the former Knicks employee who sued the team for sexual harassment. It was just a matter of time until they turned on each other.

Clearly, Thomas has decided to go after Marbury, and you have to wonder how much his owner, Jim Dolan, is behind this move. Thomas knew he’d have the public support for benching Marbury, but probably didn’t expect Marbury would create this circus by leaving the team.

Just Tuesday morning, the New York Daily News reported Marbury had been angry over learning he wouldn’t start against the Suns tonight. For most of his five seasons in New York, Marbury had been at odds with Thomas over how he was expected to play the point. Thomas wanted defense, passing and leadership. Marbury wanted to be Starbury. The Daily News even reported that there had been some discussion within the Knicks about ending Marbury’s tenure with the franchise, presumably through a buyout even before Marbury returned to New York on Tuesday.

Just one week ago, Marbury had played beautifully in a victory over the Denver Nuggets, and the frontline of Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry looked tough, and you thought, maybe, just maybe, there was something still redeemable in this wreckage. Yet, that’s all the Knicks have been built for under Thomas. Just flashes, never staying power.

Through it all, Marbury has reminded everyone that his ultimate motivation is never winning, never leading – never anything but living in his own bizarre world.

“It seems like he and I go through this every November, then a couple of weeks go by and we kind of kiss and make up, then we go back to the business of trying to win basketball games,” Thomas said.

That’s a load of garbage. This time, it’s different. And Thomas knows it. Marbury has always been on the edge, but he pushed the limits of his own strange self this past summer. First, there was an appearance on a New York sports talk show, where his speech was slurred and his presence discombobulated. And then, after testifying in the Thomas sexual harassment trial to having sex with a Knicks intern in a parked truck, Marbury pranced merrily out of the courtroom, singing to himself. As usual, Marbury made a humiliating episode worse with his indifference.

They can’t go on this way with Marbury. Once more, Thomas will have to walk into his owner’s office and tell him: Eat another contract. He has to go to the Garden’s Richie Rich, Dolan, and ask him to reach into his pockets to fix another one of Thomas’ mistakes.

All that’ll cost Dolan is the balance of a buyout on the $42 million owed Marbury over this season and next.

The possibility of a trade is relatively remote, but not impossible. Even so, it’s hard to imagine there’s a franchise willing to let him pollute it for the rest of this season, never mind another. If Marbury was in the final year of his contract, yes, there would probably be takers in a deal that would allow them salary-cap relief once his contract expired in 2009. Nevertheless, there could be teams willing to make a move for Marbury with the idea of buying him out immediately.

There was always this idea that somehow Marbury could change, grow up and transform his selfish self into a leader. He would speak of studying old point guard footage of Bob Cousy, but end up playing like World B. Free. He would tell his old coach with the Nets, Byron Scott, that he wanted to know everything about how Magic Johnson ran the Showtime Lakers, but his miserable, rainy disposition alienated teammates and isolated himself.

From the day Thomas traded for Marbury in 2004, the Knicks enabled his sense of entitlement, the fantasyland he had concocted in his mind where he was forever the over-hyped prodigy out of Coney Island. All along, Marbury had been trained to believe that basketball was a business where you took and took, and never gave back. At the core, point guards need to be givers, and Marbury is the ultimate taker.

He has fantastic street smarts, real intelligence and always gave people what they wanted to hear to buy himself more time: regular revelations of epiphanies. Once, it was wearing an orange jump suit in a short prison sentence for a DUI in Phoenix, and then the trade to his hometown Knicks, the chance to learn to be a point guard under Thomas and Brown, and this summer, those embarrassing episodes had Marbury declaring that he had changed again by finding God.

For now, anyway, Marbury will be Thomas’ scapegoat. This isn’t his fault, the way that the blame for Brown didn’t fall on him. The Knicks are just five games into the season, and they’re in chaos, full crisis mode. Marbury has walked out the door, and probably played his final game with the Knicks.

Today, Marbury.

Tomorrow, Thomas.

7even · « **Reply #2 on:** November 14, 2007, 08:44:25 AM »

Somebody might get locked up over this.

Now_Im_Not_Banned · « **Reply #3 on:** November 14, 2007, 09:59:07 AM »

Marbury is a known crackhead...I dunno if Zeke is any better, though.

GangstaBoogy · « **Reply #4 on:** November 14, 2007, 11:56:14 AM »

Lol so Isaiah makes 12,000 dumb decisions but the thing that might get him fired is realizing how much of a cancer Marbury is? As if a guy who calls himself Starbury isn't obvious enough.

That team is cursed. Richardson + Balkman + Collins = injured. Marbury + Randolph = not with the team right now. And they're already not good with all those guys.

Now_Im_Not_Banned · « **Reply #5 on:** November 14, 2007, 01:39:52 PM »

Knicks fine Stephon Marbury more than $180,000 for skipping game at Phoenix

By BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer
November 14, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Knicks fined Stephon Marbury more than $180,000 for skipping Tuesday night's game at Phoenix, the latest clash between the team's star point guard and coach Isiah Thomas.

The Knicks sent Marbury a letter informing him of the fine, according to a person with knowledge of the penalty who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday. He requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss it. The Knicks would not confirm the fine.

The team plays Wednesday night in Los Angeles against the Clippers. The New York Post reported Wednesday afternoon that Marbury was on his way to Los Angeles.

According to the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, players are docked 1/110th of their salaries for a missed game. With Marbury scheduled to earn $20.1 million this season, that would be about $182,800.

Marbury told the New York Post on Tuesday he had permission from Thomas, also the Knicks president, to leave the team, but Thomas would not confirm that. He did say the team would welcome back Marbury.

Thomas refused to discuss any potential penalties against Marbury before the game on Tuesday, saying the matter would be kept "in-house."

Several of Marbury's teammates said his departure took them by surprise, but they expressed no hard feelings.

"You always support your teammates," forward Jared Jeffries said Tuesday night. "A lot of people on the outside don't understand what guys go through with their family, their friends, with this team, with anything. Whenever somebody goes through a tough time you support your teammate."

Marbury played poorly down the stretch in New York's 75-72 loss to Miami on Sunday, and the Daily News reported Tuesday the Knicks were trying to reduce Marbury's role or get rid of him entirely.

That created tensions between Marbury and Thomas -- neighbors in Westchester County who share the same agent. The two reportedly even fought on the plane to Phoenix, which the Knicks denied.

"There is no truth to that whatsoever," said Knicks spokesman Jonathan Supranowitz, who was on the flight.

Messages left for the agent, Jordan Bazant, were not immediately returned.

Marbury is still one of the Knicks' best players, averaging 15.2 points and 6.8 assists. But he and Thomas clashed early last season after Thomas benched him in the second halves of two games, and Marbury caused the Knicks some more headaches this summer.

He behaved erratically during a televised interview, then testified in a sexual harassment trial against Thomas and Madison Square Garden that he had a sexual encounter in his truck with a team intern, smiling and singing on his way out of the courthouse.

Marbury is under contract with the Knicks through next season, scheduled to earn about $42 million. That makes him difficult to trade, especially since he has created problems off the court and never won a playoff series on it.

Now_Im_Not_Banned · « **Reply #6 on:** November 14, 2007, 01:43:55 PM »

Marbury headed to LA to rejoin Knicks

Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007 2:29 pm EST

Stephon Marbury, his wallet $200,000 lighter, is headed to Los Angeles to rejoin the New York Knicks in time for tonight's game against the LA Clippers the New York Post reported Wednesday afternoon.

The Post, citing an email it received from Marbury, said the disgruntled point guard will return after an altercation with GM/Coach Isiah Thomas on a charter fly to Phoenix Monday. Thomas was reportedly unhappy with Marbury's play and was considering a demotion from the starting lineup when an altercation broke out on the plane.

According to the Post, Marbury has been fined $200,000. Marbury still claims he returned to New York with the permission of the team.