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Stephon Marbury Wants out of the Knicks
This could be the point guard's last season with the Knicks as bad blood continues to boil.
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March 2, 2008 (FPRC) -- This last season has been somewhat of a nightmare for Stephon Marbury with the Knicks. No one knows exactly what's going on in his head at this point because he's going along with the orders given to him from Madison Square Garden not to correspond with the media while he is healing from his surgically repaired left ankle. However, the word on the street is that the Coney Island point guard has had enough of the Knicks and wants out.
It's possible that the feeling is mutual. Despite the fact that Isiah Thomas has insinuated that Marbury doesn't fit into the team's long-term plans, the Knicks' training staff has been instructed to work on Marbury's rehabilitation for the purposes of getting him back in the game this season.
The bad blood goes back to Phoenix, when Thomas informed Marbury he was removing him from the starting lineup. They docked Marbury one paycheck after he left the team and flew home to New York,. The grievance filed by the NBA Players Association in that dispute still hasn't been arbitrated and probably won't be until after the season.
When Marbury announced after the loss to Toronto on January 11th that he had been suffering from chronic pain in his foot and needed to have it checked by a specialist, the Knicks accommodated him. They sent Marbury to their own foot and ankle specialist who found inflammation around a fractured bone spur but didn't recommend surgery. After a follow-up MRI, Marbury decided to have surgery. Knowing that the recovery time from such an operation is between 2-3 months, the procedure ensured that he would miss the rest of the season.
When reporting Marbury's condition, the Knicks said that he had chosen to have surgery. This put an extreme strain on the relationship between Marbury and Thomas as well as Management at Madison Square Garden. Thomas attempted to trade Marbury at the deadline. However, no other team was willing to pay him his current salary, especially with the uncertainties of his physical condition. Before the Knicks lost to Charlotte, Thomas said the Knicks' top priority this summer will be to upgrade the backcourt, which did not include Marbury.
Marbury can't believe that even though they've made it clear that his days are numbered, they're still expecting him to finish out the rest of the season, despite his ankle problems.
by Ken Johnson, staff writer for www.i-Sportsbook.com and www.CasinoUnreal.com
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Keywords:
knicks, NBA, Marbury
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