Irate Marbury Hits Back

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">March 20, 2006 -- Stephon Marbury was irate again before the Knicks' 111-100 loss last night to the Heat, defending himself against the notion he was afraid to take a big shot Friday against Detroit. Marbury also admitted he's tired of being portrayed as "scapegoat" for the Knicks' disastrous season.
Marbury denied he asked out of Friday's win over the Pistons with 41.7 seconds left, but confirmed he did not want to run the play Larry Brown diagrammed for him, believing Jamal Crawford had the hot hand.

Marbury almost sounded as if Brown were setting him up for failure.

"No, I didn't ask out of the game," Marbury said. "When I went into the game he drew the play up for me and I said, 'Why are we running a play for me when Jamal is hot? I'm the last person who should be getting the ball right now.' I just got in the game. And I was sitting for like 30 minutes. Baseball players get to warm up before they get to pitch on the mound."

Marbury used revisionist history. Though he sat out a nine-minute stretch before returning with 3:41 left, he had been in the game for three minutes when the timeout was called.

Brown yanked Marbury for Nate Robinson and Crawford converted a three-point play that gave the Knicks a one-point lead. Brown said he benched Marbury because the guard felt "tight."

"[Crawford is] the guy we needed to be going to now," Marbury said. "I'm not the dude that should be taking the shot at the end of the game when I just came into the game. I was just mad at the fact Jamal should take the shot."

Yes, Marbury was mad that the feud between him and Brown has not dissipated despite their uneasy truce Thursday.

"To be really honest, every day we're talking about what I'm doing and Coach," Marbury said. "Us two are not the problem. And I'm the stiff because I can't take the last-second shot. It seems everything is being pushed away from what's really going on. What's really going on is we're a bad basketball team right now. I'm used to being the scapegoat, but c'mon, when is enough going to be enough?"

Marbury then used a disgusting slang term to describe the situation as nonsense.

As Team Titanic turns, Saturday became another chapter when Brown left it open to interpretation whether Marbury had asked out of the game. Brown also chided Marbury by saying Crawford, who won the game with a pull-up with 2.3 seconds left, always wants to take the "big shot."

"I took [Marbury] out because he said he was stiff and couldn't run a play," Brown said yesterday. "So I put Nate in and then when we got a defensive possession I put [Marbury] back in. He wanted to go back in."

Brown said yesterday more Marbury benchings are in the offing.

"That's the way it's going to be from now on," Brown said. "He might not sit at all, and games he might sit. We're not going anywhere, so I think the only thing we can do now is try to see who's going to help us down the road."

This sickening war can't continue next season. One of them must go this summer. That Marbury did not get suspended for calling his coach "insecure," and saying he was living in the past by citing his r?sum? is indication that management may side with the star point guard. </div>

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One of them is going in the offseason, and I have a feeling it's Marbury.