Knicks tired of Marbury’s act, Mulling next move

The New York Knicks have been sick of Stephon Marbury’s act for awhile, but now there are serious indications that they’ll soon take steps to rid themselves of their high priced head case.  After Marbury refused to play for the undermanned Knicks for the second time in two games, he was trashed by his teammates, suspended by team president Donnie Walsh and reports indicate that the front office is considering the options they have to get rid of him once and for all.

With New York down to 7 healthy players due to injuries and personnel moves, Marbury was asked to play in the team’s 110-96 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night.  He again refused, which forced starting guard Quinton Richardson to play despite an arm injury.  After the game, an understandably incensed Richardson read Marbury the “riot act”:

"He hasn't played with us all year. Regardless of what you have going on with the organization or what you have going on with your coach or whatever -- you're not going to allow your teammates to be left out there the way we were basically being left out there."

"This is directed at us regardless if you're trying to stick it to whoever you're trying to stick it to. At the end of the day we're shorthanded, people are hurt.

"Once again, I don't pay attention to [Stephon] because I don't look at him as a teammate anyway."

The Knicks had already resigned themselves to the fact that they were going to pay Marbury $20+ million this season to ride the bench, but weren’t about to let his insubordination go unpunished.  The team suspended him for one game without pay and ordered him to stay away from the team and their practice facility until Monday at the earliest.  The one game suspension will cost Marbury upwards of $400,000.

In the meantime, Donnie Walsh stated the obvious in announcing Marbury’s suspension:

"A player's central obligation is to provide his professional services when called upon. Because he refused the coach's request to play in the team's last game, we had no choice but to impose disciplinary action."

The Knicks have been hesitant to offer Marbury a buyout, but may now rejoin the issue rather than let his presence cause any collateral damage to team chemistry.  For his part, D’Antoni was somewhat conciliatory in his statements concerning Marbury:

"I'm not mad at him. It's just a tough situation for everybody, and it didn't work out for anybody, and now we've got to get through it and try to get the parties to agree."

Thanks to the suspension, the Knicks now have Marbury out of their hair for the weekend.  Marbury has indicated that he’ll file a grievance with the NBA Players Association—not over the suspension, but for the lost pay.