Stephon Marbury: It's Not a Mess; It's a Message

The sports media machine has painted the Knicks’ management as the scapegoat for the Stephon Marbury mess.

They want you to believe that Donnie Walsh has made a bad situation worse. They want you to believe that Mike D’Antoni is picking fights with this troubled point guard. They want you to believe that the Knicks have totally mismanaged the whole situation. Yeah, they want you to believe that.

The truth is that we should applaud Walsh; we should be singing the praises of D’Antoni. These two have set a new precedent in New York: thug-like behavior, bad attitudes, and “me first” mentalities are no longer welcome.

These two men were pretty upfront with Marbury concerning his current roll and his future with the team. They envision not only a winning team, but title contention also. Marbury insisted that he would reap “every penny he was owed,” instead of negotiate for a buy-out; all of this while the DNP-CD’s were piling up.

So the situation finally comes about where the Knicks needed Marbury to not only suit up, but possibly even get some playing time. The end result: another DNP-CD. But the bottom line is this: It doesn’t matter whether Marbury was asked to play or told to play; He didn’t do it.

He made a conscious decision to screw his franchise and to screw his team mates when they needed him the most. He had a golden opportunity to salvage some of his image, actually EARN some of the $21.9 million he’s expected to make this year, and maybe,  just maybe, do something hero-esque.

Had he chose to play, he could’ve given his team another chance to win. And maybe, he could have been their savior if only for a night or two.

What we got instead was typical Marbury: decisions made only with himself in mind.

It would be different if this was the first time that he had not been there for his team. But this wasn’t the first time and it almost certainly won’t be the last. He’s been fined,  he’s been suspended,  and how anyone could think that issuing thousands of dollars in fines to a man who make tens of millions in a year will rectify the problem is beyond me.

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