Associated Press
GREENBURGH, N.Y. ó Stephon Marbury did not get the divorce he wants, but he and the New York Knicks agreed to a separation.
Marbury was ordered Monday to stay away from the Knicks while the team looks for a solution to its $21 million problem ó one that has lingered since the preseason and exploded last week when the team suspended him for refusing to play and he retaliated with a series of inflammatory remarks about coach Mike D’Antoni.
Marbury’s future was “not resolved” during a meeting with team president Donnie Walsh at the Knicks’ practice facility, according to the players’ association attorney representing him. The sides will continue to talk, but Marbury won’t be around in the meantime.
“After meeting with Stephon and his representative this afternoon, we have directed Stephon not to participate in practice or attend games until further notice,” Walsh said in a statement. “We want to continue to meet with him to discuss a long-term resolution.”
Marbury will earn about $21 million this season in the final year of his contract and is adamant that he won’t give much of it up in a buyout. However, that salary makes him nearly impossible to trade, and the Knicks are reluctant to give him all his money to leave.
Walsh’s decision to ban Marbury comes on the heels of the latest trouble in his stormy Knicks career. The Knicks suspended the New York native one game and penalized him nearly $400,000 last week for what they claimed was his refusal of D’Antoni’s request to come off the inactive list and play in a game at Detroit last Wednesday.
Marbury then blasted the coach in a pair of stories in the New York Post, saying he didn’t trust D’Antoni and adding that “the marriage is over.”
Not yet, though.
The decision to ban Marbury from the team is similar to what Indiana is doing this season with Jamaal Tinsley and did in the past with Ron Artest. Walsh, the former Pacers president, had little choice after Marbury lashed out at coaches and teammates Monday.