Twenty-four hours after burying his father, Stephon Marbury sat in a locker room at the Wachovia Center and preparing himself to play here tonight against the Sixers.
"To be honest, I don't want to be here," Marbury said, "but it's something I gotta do. It's my job. It's something I love to do. I just want to get back into the swing of things.
"It's tough," Marbury added, "but my father's in the ground now, there' nothing else I can do now but grieve."
Stephon spoke to a few reporters for almost 10 minutes and expressed a wide range of emotions. He did say he had no problems with the Knicks not telling him that his father had gone to the hospital. He said his father would have wanted him to stay in the game.
"He would have wanted me to continue to play, even when he was in the hospital," Marbury said. "My father was telling my brothers that he was tired, that he wanted to go to sleep. Right now, my father would have been telling me, 'Go play, I'm all right.' You know what I'm saying? the way how everything happened was the way it was supposed to."
Isiah Thomas said Marbury, who made the decision to play last night, will start and play his usual minutes. Considering the emotions Marbury is still enduring, you can't expect him to play at a high level. Not to say it's out of the question; as we've seen before with professional athletes, sometimes getting lost in the game can be a form of emotional therapy.
"His grieving will go on for a while," Thomas said. "Hopefully the games will be therapeutic for him. We'll just deal with it for as long as we have to."
* *
* - Eddy Curry, who missed Wednesday's game with a sprained ankle, is a game-time decision. He got taped and participated in the walk-through this morning. Curry initially hurt the ankle during Wednesday's walk-through....
Comments (10)
I never want to see that punk a$$ Stephon Marbury in another Knick game again. Suck it up and buyout his contract and give him a lifetime bereavement leave. Same goes for that jacka$$ Isiah Thomas.
Freddie, way to demonstrate that holiday spirit... you should get your medication adjusted. It's not working..
Freddie must be a Nets fan. Sorry about the loss last game.
Steph can still play and make this a winning team with better than average play. Eddy Curry is this teams real cancer. He has no defensive skill to stop teams early in games. Which is why they build leads off his mistakes which leads to early to large leads for the opponent. Bench Curry! Isiah can't be that naive.
I am not a Nets fan. I just hate this Knicks regime to no end and want to see a turnaround. I am absolutely flabbergasted that any Knick fan could support Stephon Marbury, Isiah Thomas and Jim Dolan. I am shorting the Knicks all season, because each lose means we are a day closer to Isiah losing his job. For Christmas I would like a season ending injury to Stephon Marbury.
With regard to Eddie Curry, I wanna support the guy and root for him. However, you see some progress and then it seems he takes a step back. He is as soft as my stool after eating a bowl of fruit.
I dont think this is a good idea as a coach Zeke should be able to see Marbury is to emotional right now to be playing basketball and especially starting. How can zeke not realize that when Marbury steps out on the court that he is not going to have his head in the game he is probably going to be thinking about his Dad dieing in the stands while watching him play and Marbury is going to be constantly looking into the stands hoping his Father is still there and it was all a dream or Marbury is going to try and take over the ball game all to himself and try to score 60 points to say this ones for you Dad and we will lose it all for Marbury to have his moment...........Either Zeke is trying real hard to get Marbury back on his good side so he doesn't dish the dirt on him or Zeke doesn't now how to be a coach and not play players when he shouldn't. I bet he would try to play Jerome James right now if James said he wanted to play even though he is hurt and out of shape..........I though Zeke says he plays to win and it doesn't matter who he plays then how come he is going to break up a line up that seem to work and have chemistry and a balanced attack of scoring and defense. They were the ones who made the comeback win against the Buck and they beat the Nets why not stay with what works and bring Marbruy off of the bench ?
Good writing Alan,
Try finding good food in Volk Field, Wisconsin. I am here till Tuesday and it is cold! They brag about garlic cheese in these parts.
Does anyone remember Larry Brown's "ideal" team comment made while he was on the Knicks? He talked about having one big man, a forward that could play both PF/C, a forward that could defend both SF/PF and so on and so on. I am curious to see who on the Knicks roster fits that mold.
I also think with Jamal and Zach out you might see improvement from Curry/Steph. I think it's a matter of sharing the ball with too many players. I'd prefer to keep Zach and Jamal though.
DFTT-
PLEASE TRADE CURRY WHILE HE GOT SOME VALUE.PLEASE.I'LL MAKE THE TRADE.....I'LL TAKE ANY1 THAT CAN GRAB REBOUND N BLOCK SHOTS WE GOT ZACH A BETTER CONSISTENT SCORER IN THE POST.U CAN EVEN ADD CRAWFORD IN THAT TRADE FOR DURANT AN WALLY AN SOME OTHERZ TO MAKE IT WORK MONEY WISE.BUT I KNOW THEY AINT GIVING UP DURANT I'LL EVEN TAKE WILCOX WALLY AN WATSON FOR CURRY AN CRAWFORD .THATZ A GOOD TRADE.....
Why don't the Knicks wise up and give Scrubbury permission to take the rest of the season off. I was a diehard Knickerbocker before Scrubbury arrived and I will once again root for the Knicks only after his well earned departure. (the coach can also join him)