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Is the damage already done?

by Tommy Dee on February 13th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

One would hope that the Knicks and Stephon Marbury mutually come to an agreement, but the ramifications made by Knicks management has been making waves around the NBA for some time.

This isn’t news, but we’ve been hearing from people in the know that there is a league-wide sentiment that the Knicks have severely mishandled the Marbury situation and I’d be shocked if Donnie Walsh doesn’t realize it. That tells me that he’s not in total basketball control and that he is heeding the demands of his owner.

So, logically, one has to wonder if this will impact the decision of free agents  moving forward, especially in 2010.

Believe it or not, Stephon has a lot of friends in the league, most of whom are veterans, and they aren’t too happy with how Marbury has been treated by Mr. Dolan’s Knicks.

The question I have is does this have Dolan’s imprint on it? It must. There have been more money issues with this team than I can ever recall, which has to mean Walsh is getting the message from above. His decision to not acquire a draft pick for cash was an odd one for the Knicks,  but in fairness that may have been as much about lack of roster flexibility than money.  Not making any buyouts, though, is a prime example.

It would appear that Walsh is being advised not to spend. As far as Marbury, if this issue is also about the owner’s spite, then Walsh is unquestionably falling on a bigger sword than even he realizes.

Let’s hope that it doesn’t come back to stab him in a few years.
  • danisrob

    Wals may have not have handled it well but if anyone thinks he is the bad guy and not Marbury they have not been following the story. Marbury has been a trouble to this franchise for a few years now with all the Isiah Thomas threats and the refusal to play this year and everything in between.

    I personally hope they wait to til after March 1st to buy him out so he can’t play in the playoffs, it may be spiteful but he hasnt done anything to deserve anything else.

  • http://theKnicksBlog.com Tommy Dee

    Fair. But that action has an equal and opposite reaction.

    I’m hearing that players are upset, but in the end money always talks for FAs…

  • italian stallion

    I’m not sure why anyone would consider the Marbury affair mishandled unless they are a current or former player that doesn’t like the fact that a contract gives ownership some control over his assets/players.

    1. If the Knicks wanted to have any chance of trading Marbury (however remote), they had to get him on the court in pre season to show that he had recovered from surgery last year.

    2. In order to get him on the court he had to think there was a good chance he would have a role on the team.

    3. If there were no trades available, the only sensible alternative was a buyout that made economic and basketball sense to the Knicks.

    4. Marbury refused to even discuss a discounted buyout in the range that would be typical of this kind of situation and it made no sense to allow him to go to Boston, Miami or any other team the Knicks would be playing during their potential playoff drive.

    Thre real issue here is that after years of his self centered behavior, his teamates and the organization considered paying him to not play superior to allowing him to potentially poison the locker room. It finally caught up to him. To those that think this was mishandled, I would suggest we don’t want them on the Knicks either.

  • BiggieSmalls

    Ive no problem with Donnie holding onto Steph until the deadline.. He IS an asset as an expiring contract and COULD have a value in a monster trade. So why give that up for a few mil in salary relief?>

    Chances are Steph is on the roster through the end of Feb given the dates of his hearing..

    As you said.. players follow the money… should not be any long term ramifications to the Steph issue. the man is gettiing 20 some mil to sit at home and watch peoples court.

  • EQ1217

    In 2010 free agents are not going to be thinking to themselves, hey remember back in the 08-09 season how the Knicks handled the Marbury situation? Maybe I won’t accept top dollar to play in NY with a coach whose system helps my stats explode

    Yeah, this is only a minor neusense for this season, nothing more

  • http://theKnicksBlog.com Tommy Dee

    I hope so..

  • rico

    Last year after Marbury went AWOL for the Suns game,
    for his teammates and Zeke it was the last straw.

    That was last years last blow up,
    which was pretty big NBA news,
    Marbury putting himself ahead of the team AGAIN.

    Lebron James commented “I wouldn’t want a guy like that on my team”,
    said James.

    So maybe Walsh is listening to Lebron, not Walsh:)

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  • tweck9

    This scares me. The indication that what’s holding us back is James Dolan, still, after all this time. And we’ve spent the past 10 years focusing our anger on first Scott Layden and second Isiah Thomas. Not that they were undeservant; only that the real problem is the guy who hired those clowns in the first place, and continues to make terrible decisions that undermine the ability of the team to progress. Mr. Dolan appears incapable of acting in any other way, and could potentially spell the team’s doom come 2010.