"I'll decide what's right for me"

The words of Stephon Marbury, a non-playing NBA player who is going to make more in this single year of refusing to provide service than anyone reading this blog will make in their entire life.

The NY Times reports that the Knicks' refusal to waive Marbury outright, seeing how he won't play and they are on the hook for his $21.9 million this year, is "costing them in the court of public opinion." You see, the fact that there are only two healthy guards on the roster (Nate Robinson, the third, is banged up, and Cuttino Mobley, the fourth, hasn't reported since their salary dump move of Zach Randolph to the Clips since the Knicks have subsequently discovered that he's got a heart problem -- shocking, isn't it, that there is a player on the Clippers with a heart problem)... well, the public blames the Knicks for this whole thing.

If only they had treated a coach killer, team cancer, bad shooter and defensive liability better, he might be willing to deign the court with his presence right now. And if they only had decided to eat his entire contract so that he could go play for some other franchise (presumably while actually caring, at least in games where he could wreak his terrible vengeance on the Knicks), they could have some replacement level scrub to run around and provide bench minutes until they can get their roster straightened out.

Left out in this remarkable state of affairs -- seriously, have you ever heard of a situation in which the highest paid player in a league might also be its worst actual asset -- is any lingering bitterness or distaste for the people who are really to blame for this.

That'd be Stephon Marbury, who is personally destroying whatever positive public image the NBA might be hoping to generate during a remarkably competitive year with exceptional teams. It'd also be Isiah Thomas, the worst general manager in the history of sports, who traded for and paid out the nose for this waste of sperm and dignity. And it would be Knicks owner James Dolan, who cuts the checks for all of this, and gave Thomas the keys to the vault.

How bad has it gotten? Even Starbury's teammates (Quentin Richardson, for the record) are calling him out now. Funny, but leaving everyone else in the lurch while you make more money than all of them isn't exactly appreciated by the other folks who are, you know, actually attempting to win games. Who would have thunk it?

Oh, and one last thing... Dolan makes his money from Cablevision, the service provider here in the Shooter Space. So I'm to blame, too, and some part of my monthly bill is going to Starbury's coffers. Hell, maybe that's why they raised my bill last month. Damn you, Starbury!