Knicks send Marbury packing without a resolution

The New York Knicks and Stephon Marbury were unable to agree on a buyout offer during a meeting on Monday, so they told him to “get lost” until they can figure out a way to get rid of him for good.  Marbury met with Knicks President Donnie Walsh for only 15 minutes, and his attorney, Hal Biagas, conferred with Walsh for another 20 minutes. 

Marbury has spent the entire season riding the bench in street clothes as the Knicks seemed to be resigned to paying him $20 million a year for doing absolutely nothing.  With the team experiencing some short term personnel issues due to injuries and trades, Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni approached Marbury about logging some playing time.  Marbury refused twice, and the insubordination has prompted the team to revisit their attempts to rid themselves of the petulant point guard once and for all.

Walsh didn’t have much to say after the failed attempt at resolving the Marbury situation, issuing the following statement:

"After meeting with Stephon and his representative this afternoon, we have directed Stephon not to participate in practice or attend games until further notice. We want to continue to meet with him to discuss a long-term resolution."

Marbury has been a fixture in the New York media over the past few days as he desperately tries to put a favorable spin on his antics.  In the process, he’s blamed his teammates, coaches, executives, the media—basically everyone this side of Willis Reed, Jerry West and James Naismith.  With new coach D’Antoni trying to clean up the mess left by Isiah Thomas and doing a fairly good job putting together a competitive team while trying to clear up cap room to go after a big free agent down the road, the current Knicks players sound alternately tired of talking about Marbury and amused by his borderline absurd version of the situation. 

Forward David Lee is just tired of it and wants to focus on playing basketball.  He responded to Marbury’s accusations that his teammates “threw him under the bus”:

“I don’t know what to say to that, more than I’m sorry he feels that way and I don’t get the impression that we’ve done that. But moving forward, as I said, this has just got to get taken care of whenever it gets taken care of and we’ve just got to focus on winning. And buying into comments like that or responding to them does nothing more than take the focus off our team and winning.”

Forward Quinton Richardson, who has played out of position *and* injured during the Knicks personnel moves, has been the player most vocally critical of Marbury over the past few weeks.  When asked to comment on Marbury’s claim that his teammates “hung him out to dry” he all but rolled his eyes with this comment:

"He's entitled to his opinion just like I am. And obviously I said what I said and he feels differently about that, and he's entitled to that. The main thing we want to do is we want to play basketball and win games. These aren't the things we want to come off the court and talk about."

The distractions from the Marbury situation may not have been dealt with, but at the very least the team won’t have to deal with his antics personally.  According to sources close to the situation, no timetable has been set for future meetings between Marbury and the team.