Quickly On Marbury

by Chris Alvino on November 30th, 2008 at 11:03 pm

While Stephon Marbury’s imminent future with the Knicks has garnered national attention, it has not necessarily made the front headlines here on TKB.  Sure we have made mention of it, but we have tried not to harp on it quite like ESPN, Fox Sports, and some of the local newspapers have.  Although I have no problem with those media outlets covering the Marbury ordeal, I am one that almost considers it a moot subject.  Until something actual happens, it is almost not even worth talking about anymore.

But before tomorrow’s well publicized meeting between Marbury and Walsh, I figured that I might as well say a few words.

Regardless of who is in the wrong, there was never any question as to how this situation would escalate.  As I wrote once before, if Walsh and D’Antoni thought that they could simply sweep this Marbury saga under the proverbial rug, they grossly underestimated the power of the New York media, the national media’s fixation with the Knicks’ off-court issues, and most importantly, they underestimated the power of Stephon Marbury.  Walsh and D’Antoni tried to play off this situation, hoping that it would either disappear or could be handled under the radar.  Now, just about everybody in America knows about tomorrow’s big meeting.

I would rather not sit here and begin to speculate on what actually happened when Marbury reportedly refused to play against the Bucks.  From what I understand, there was a conversation between Marbury and D’Antoni about the possibility of Marbury suiting up to play his first minutes of the young season.  Regardless of what was said, the bottom line is that Marbury has yet to play a single minute for the Knicks thus far.

But I will say this.  If Marbury did in fact refuse to play when he was asked to, then shame on him.  He not only disgraced his coach and his current teammates, but more importantly he disgraced the Knick uniform, he disgraced Madison Square Garden, he disgraced the fans that pour their hearts into this team, and he disgraced the game of basketball, a game he has said he loves.  As a college student, I have been known to forego studying for exams in order to play in meaningless intramural basketball games.  In fact, I can’t think of a reason off the top of my head as to why I would skip any game.  Similarly, I would bet that most of you out there would have a tough time as well.  Go to any park in the tri-state area, and there would not be one accountant, lawyer, sanitation worker, teacher, magazine editor, or policeman that would turn down the opportunity to play for the undermanned Knicks in their time of dire need.  No one would have to be asked twice to play in MSG, the Mecca of Basketball, the famous House of Hoops.  The bottom line is that Marbury should not have to be asked to play; he should be foaming at the mouth for a chance to do so.  Marbury supposedly loves the game and loves the Knicks.  Based on recent reports, I have a tough time believing that. 

If the faces of the Knick immortals could be attached to their retired numbers hanging in MSG’s rafters, you can bet that they would be frowning down on Marbury, New York’s prodigal point guard that was supposed to come home and lead this franchise to the next level. 

From an outsider’s perspective, Marbury came into this season with an open mind and handled himself fairly well.  He was asked to come into camp in shape. He did.  He was promised a clean slate like the rest of the incumbent Knicks.  He was in fact not granted that clean slate. So in this situation, Marbury should not take all of the blame.  Both sides could have handled this situation better.  But if Marbury and the Knicks divorce soon, it will result from Marbury’s accumulation of missteps in New York, not only his most recent one. 

Again, we here at TKB have not harped on the Marbury soap opera because we care more about reality.  We care more about the team’s record and who their next opponent is more than the “he said, she said” battles between a coach and his cast-away fallen star.  Quite frankly, I, much like many of you, have grown tired of this off-court ordeal.  When push comes to shove, what happens on the court is what really matters.  Hopefully tomorrow we here at TKB can offer you fans some closure on this situation.  Until then, try thinking about Tuesday night’s game against the Blazers.

About Chris Alvino

Chris Alvino grew up in Crestwood, NY. He graduated from Regis High School in 2005. There he played both basketball and baseball. Chris is currently a student at Boston College, where he practices with the varsity Women's Basketball Team (... seriously). Chris has been a Knicks' fan for years and can literally talk about them all day long, every day of the week. Chris enjoys writing on this blog and seeing what everyone out there has to say about it. View all posts by Chris Alvino →
  • http://www.thiswebsiteissoawesome.com/ The Frankman

    Marbury has to be held accountable no doubt but remember, D’Antoni lied TWICE to him before a minute was played the season

    a) “All players have a blank slate; you show up in shape and work hard and you’ll get minutes.”
    b) “We envision Marbury as a 6th Man” and then played him as such in the preseason.

    D’Antoni showed a clear lack of professionalism. To make matters worse, he doesn’t sit down and tell Marbury before the season that he isn’t playing. That’s where he made his mistake: if he just said from PreSeason Day 1 “I’m not playing him” and then not play him, message sent loud and clear. Everyone gets it and maybe a resolution takes place earlier. Instead he tried some cloak and dagger stuff and Marbury is still a Knick, Roberson is a Knick (still don’t get that) and Patrick Ewing Jr. is sitting at home.

    Personally after this I don’t much trust Pringles myself.

  • Where expiring contracts happen

    Chris, don’t you think your view is a little naive?

    1. You have to consider the probable possibility that this is a ploy arranged by the Knicks to obtain leverage in a possible buy-out negotiation. Their obstruction and manipulation of the media in previous years shows that they are capable of using the tabloids to paint Marbury as a villian and accuse him of breaking his NBA contract.

    2. The Knicks and MSG havent done anything in the subsequent 10 years to earn any shred of credibility or trust from me, nor should they from anyone else regarding this matter.

    3. I agree 100% with the post above. Fans were promised a higher degree of professionalism with Walsh and D’Antoni, and they have thus far failed their first major test in dealing with the departure of Stephon Marbury.

  • Chris Alvino

    First off, I like your name. Creative.

    Second, I tried to be impartial with my assessment above. If I didn’t make it clear, then I will try to do so right now. I am not sure exactly what went on between Marbury and D’Antoni when the coach as Marbury to play. I am not entirely sure on what the communication level has been between the coach and Marbury.

    I respect Marbury for how he handled himself coming into this year. He came in like a professional, in shape and ready for whatever role D’Antoni was willing to give him. Do you blame him for publicly saying that he still views himself as a starter? He might be the most talented player on this roster right now. Of course he can still start in this league (but not on this team, not at the point at least).

    What I tried to say above is that if Marbury did turn down (refuse might be too strong of a word) an opportunity to play, then he should be ashamed. I don’t want to hear anything about hurt feelings or disrespect from the coaches and management. Marbury has been a thorn in the side of the Knicks management since he has been here. He has a well-documented history of generosity with his attempts to give back to the community. But what has he given back to the Knicks? Inability to play through injury last year? A month long grievance period? Leaving the team on a road trip? Marbury never seemed to learn how to grow up and he was able to use his massive, untradeable contract as leverage.

    Without 21 million coming his way this year, Marbury would have been off the team a long time ago. That contract is the only thing holding Marbury on this team, and is probably the only thing that held him on the team last year.

    It is funny that whenever there is an off-court issue with the Knicks that there is some type of link back to Stephon Marbury. It’s funny, right? Does he get picked on by the New York media. Yeah, probably. But for about 5 years now? Expiring contracts, are you trying to call me naive for saying that Marbury has never been held accountable by the Knicks? The Knicks image has been driven through the mud over the last few year and Marbury has been behind the wheel.

    As I stated above, if Marbury is bought out, it will be a long time coming. Regardless of this most recent situation, Marbury’s divorce will stem from nearly five years of missteps in New York.

    For the record, I have publicly stated that I think Marbury should have been playing since the beginning of the year. Check out the link I posted to my previous post.

  • jcmoney

    I don’t think the argument the expiring contracts guy is making is pro or against Marbury, its just that with Donnie Walsh and D’Antoni replacing Isaiah, we thought things would run more smoothly and professionally, and this whole saga has been mismanaged. There were two ways to handle this situation: Let Marbury get some minutes while only keeping whatever value he still had or possibly improving it as a veteran scorer; or, buy him out in the begining and let him be another team’s problem.

    Handling it this way manages to some how make the Knicks a national media mess even though we are a .500 team who just traded its two best players for cap space in 2010. There are tons of things to be talking about and debating on this blog, and one of them is not Marbury. (Thanks to TKB for not blowing it up as much as ESPN tho)

    If there is any bright spot, its that Donnie and co will learn how NY fans and media react and will handle things better in the future. I dont see how this wasnt anticipated when your only shooting gaurd left is Anthony Roberson and you have a former All-Star on the bench. The shame in it all is that with the team playing how it is, we could really use Marbury as instant offense off the bench until Nate is healed and some part of my brain still wants Marbury to resolve this and suit up tuesday. But anyway, the fact remains that Donnie should have handled this in a way where the fans dont chant “we want steph” for a .500 team (and this has been happening from all over the stadium, not one section like has been reported).

  • harlemsdiplomat

    Oh man I’m tierd of Knicks fan or any 1 for that matter complain that steph is being treated bad or w/e u guys r tryin to defend him for.
    Karma is a mofo bi*** everything he made the Knicks(Mr.thomas) Go tthru he’s going thru and it seems worst being that he is in his contract year he couldn’t play under
    BYRON SCOTT,FLIP SAUNDERS,LARRY BROWN!!!!! He didn’t work out with d’antoni in pheniox with much better players so maybe d’antoni doesn’t wana waste his time and give him burns.
    I believe that there plan allll along was to showcase steph during the pre-season and try to trade him b4 the season looks like that didn’t work out so sit him on the bench at the end of the day he’s just gona give us an expiering contract anyways playing him or not.

    Man! And once again wasn’t every 1 and there mothers blogging or writing about how every 1 gots to go in order for the knicks to be respectable? Steph is gone he been gone since the 1st game of the season lets just move on and HOPE we can get lebron 2010 matta fact lets hope mike d’antoni sticks around cuz he’s a helluva coach!

  • Chris Alvino

    I think the Diplomat has a point worth noticing here. Aside from his contract, no one wants to deal for Marbury because of his attitude, not his game. Clearly Marbury has that. He is clearly in shape. Other GMs don’t want to deal with the circus that Marbury brings. If he is bought out, another team will sign him. In fact, there will probably be teams lining up to sign him. That is because there will not be much of a financial burden to take a risk on him. If he were to get traded to another team and cause problems there (even though I doubt he could cause that much trouble for the rest of this year), then the other team would be on the hook for his salary.

  • Where expiring contracts happen

    Well the issue here, is that the Knicks are a complete mess and it sucks. But the question is, who is to blame for creating that mess? Is it more MSG or is it more Marbury?

    I’d argue that it is 90% MSG. And it all started when Grunfeld was fired after putting together a roster that made it all the way to the 99 Finals, and was subsequently replaced by Layden and Thomas. Couple those bad hirings with James Dolan’s incompetant franchise management, and that leads us to where we are almost ten years later.

    Anyway I’m not writing to chronicle our recent sad history which im sure Chris, you can recite, but rather to say that even with the Knicks now trying to clear some of their past mistakes, ala Marbury, they still manage to screw it up.

    Furthermore, we all know that Isiah’s trades and free agent signings were bad – but the Knicks including Dolan who signed off on his massive contract should have known what they were getting into with Marbury when they signed him. When things are going well like they were in Minnesota with KG, he’s a dynamic scorer and impossible to stop on his way to the rim. When they’re going bad, he’s a loose cannon. He has a track record of not keeping quiet and offending people as he did in Phoenix, NJ and Minnesota.

    The Knicks took the Marbury gamble and failed. Fine that happens in the NBA – But to say that the Knicks image has been driven through the mud and that Marbury was the one driving – are you trying to portray a mismanaged Knicks organization as the victim…????? Even now, Dolan’s ego stands in the way of Walsh negotiating a simple buy-out or trying to establish a player’s trade value.

    Through every bad decision, the Knicks organization has yet to say, “we f*cked up” or respond remotely well compared to any credible organization. And even with the Walsh hiring/strategy, which I support, they still manage to find a way to make terrible decisions.

    To be fair, I’m a Marbury supporter. Mostly because I love his storied rise from Coney Island to the NBA, taking his family along with him, starting his own business, etc etc. I tend to see pro athletes like Steph as sort of the sympathetic protagonist in the game/story that is the professional sports-money making machine.

    But if we all know Steph’s background and his incredible New York story, doesnt it say more about the Knicks than it does about Marbury that a kid who grew up in New York rooting for Clyde, Reed and Pearl, who idolized the Knicks and who’s dream it was to one day play for them, now considers it an insult to suit up for them??

    I don’t consider you naive by any means, but your piece seemed decidedly anti-Marbury, which in my opinion excluded the Knicks altogether from the large burden they should bear when dealing with upset fans and season ticket holders resulting from this embarassing saga.

    Keep up the good work Chris. Love the constant updated content. Just found my way here via metsblog.com

  • Chris Alvino

    First off, well said. As a Marbury supporter, you came at me with a very well-written, well-thought out argument. I, unlike you, am not a huge supporter of Marbury. I like his game, but I don’t love it. He is not a pure point guard, despite his strong assist numbers throughout his career. I was also never a fan on his on the defensive end. He has all the talent in the world. He can, shoot, pass, is as athletically gifted as they come, and to his credit, can take the ball to the rim as well as anybody in the league. Still, I do not love his game.

    And you are right, Marbury is not the only one to blame. When I painted the picture of his driving the Knicks image through the mud, I did not mean to put all of this organization’s faults on him.

    This is an awful situation and I hope that if Marbury gets bought out that he can grow up a bit and resurrect his career elsewhere.

    Anyway, thanks a lot for reading the blog and for commenting. You and the rest of the fans help make this site what it is. We try to provide information and insight, but we also like to conversate with others in the comments section. After all, we are all fans.