The Stephon Saga.

By Migs

First off, it's great to be back in this corner of cyberspace. Due to unforseen circumstances, I had to take a bit of a hiatus. I have returned, though, bigger, and better, than before.

So, the 2008-2009 NBA campaign is on, and beyond the Lakers' 14-1 start, the Lebron James' suitors for the summer of 2010, the Phoenix Suns' moving down a few RPMs, and the emergence of Derrick Rose as a force to reckon with, exists a story that has the headlines in a chokehold- for better or worse.

Enter the Stephon Marbury saga. I've lost track of what segment of the Manhattan Madness we've fallen into, and quite frankly, like a lot of people out there, I've had enough of it.

Recently, the 31 year old former NBA All Star lashed out at his teammates and his coach Mike D'Antoni for "leaving him for dead" and backstabbing him during his darkest days. Both the Knicks and Starbury are at fault in this situation. Here's why.

1) Donnie Walsh and co. should have cleaned up their closets in the offseason.

Okay, I understand that the NBA is a business and, fundamentally, you need to find the best answers to the toughest of conundrums, but then, in the case of Marbury, perhaps it would have been better to suck up part of the proverbial bitter pill and just cut ties with the fellow before his venom could have time to circulate itself (again) deep into the heart of NYC. $20 million is a steep price to pay for a player who whines and doesn't play, but then, hey, who signed him up and sat him down in the first place? Cut your losses early, especially for things that, on the whole, you can't change. The Knicks should not have kept Marbury on the roster only to, on one hand, say that he "isn't part of their plans for now or later", then, a second later, offer a player of his caliber (talentwise) mop up minutes once that same team that declared itself free of jersey number 3 finds itself short of soldiers to send to war. Gentlemen, let's be consistent with our actuations here. Let's do, or do not, cut, and cut cleanly. The Knicks going 8-8 (their best start at this point in the regular season since 2004), a stark improvement from how they began last year, along with the stellar play of guys like Chris Duhon and David Lee, has been, unfortunately, muddled by this latest Marbury mishap. Quite frankly, it should be the final time that this happens, and it probably will be, but then, the Knicks will have to bite a much harder, larger bullet now than they would have if only they had possessed enough foresight to knock of the final and most glaring remnant of the "Isiah virus" without having to go Code Red on everyone.

2) Stephon Marbury has a point.

Steph has been wrong before, but this time, he's actually got some bullets to work with.

Why tease the fellow with platitudes that don't point to a final resolution? It's not fair to Steph, the Knicks fans, and the Knicks players that those upstairs don't set Marbury free in the quickest and most painless manner possible. Buy him out, trade him (if anyone would be crazy enough to take on his many quirks and his hefty salary), and, as much as possible, avoid giving the fellow and his mates empty promises. It's not good for both locker room and those in the stands. Why give someone whom the majority recognizes as one who has done more harm than good alibis he can use against you when push comes to shove? It just doesn't make sense to me how a basketball savant like Donnie Walsh could let this come to pass. Then again, it could be Walsh had actually been seeking the best "out" for both Steph and his team, and it just so happened that way too much sand had streamed out of the proverbial hourglass during Walsh's quest for answers.

3) Mike D'Antoni could have at least seemed less preoccupied with the past.

We all know that once upon a time, Mike D'Antoni was the coach of the Phoenix Suns, and before Steve Nash, there were the oft-injured Penny Hardaway and, you guessed it, Stephon Marbury. Marbury and D'Antoni had a tenuous relationship while in the desert to say the least, and, while Hardaway had long since faded into the horizon, the former NBA All-Star and the former Italian League legend had returned to one another, seemingly, err, for one final run at the ultimate battle of atrition.

At least on the outside, D'Antoni could have portrayed a less bitter image in terms of how he's handled the Steph scenario. Frustrated Knicks followers might opine that Marbury's been nothing but a poison to their city's ballclub and is just getting what he's had coming to him, but then, the fomer Suns mentor could have, himself, egged Donnie Walsh on to end the Marbury saga as swiftly as possible, so as to avoid besmirching everyone's reputations even more than they already had been.

Could pride have hindered the good coach from acting rationally here? Mismanagement's taken root, and now, in order to get the ending they need, both parties need to walk through a path acerbic and wrought with ghosts from the past, and spectres from the present, which inevitably cloud a future that is, in itself, uncertain.

The Knicks are an odd conundrum- an organization which both is "on the outside looking in", and one that always finds itself "looking within". They constantly seem to be salivating at what could be, whilst, also, gazing within themselves for the real definition of "what is".

For a franchise that has sported the likes in Walt Frazier, Patrick Ewing, Willis Reed, and Earl Monroe in its history, the future couldn't be further from the now, despite what their payroll, in reference to "what could be", says.

When this entire soap opera will finish is anybody's guess. In the meantime, maybe we should all just keep cheering for David Lee who seems like the only one in blue and white actually focused on playing ball, with or without the cameras in his face.

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