Knicks Suspend Stephon Marbury

The Knicks may finally be on their way to cutting their ties with Stephon Marbury. The team has suspended their $21 million dollar man for one game without pay, for his refusal to play in the Knicks' game in Detroit this past Wednesday. As far as Knicks' GM Donnie Walsh is concerned, the suspension is completely justified:

"A player's central obligation is to provide his professional services when called upon. Because he refused the coach's request to play in the team's last game, we had no choice but to impose disciplinary action."

Predictably, Starbury doesn't think that it went down like that, and says he never refused a direct request from Mike D'Antoni to play:

"If you say I got to play, I'm going to play. If he said I have to play, guess what, I'm going to get on the court and play, period. If I refuse to play, I'm getting suspended. I never told him I'm not going to play. Those words never came out of my mouth. That's insubordination."

The suspension will cost Marbury roughly $400,000, so it's not surprising that he's not going to go along with it quietly. As Brinson recently noted, the trust issues are competely gone between player and coach, and Marbury isn't exactly a beloved teammate at this point either. So if I'm the Knicks, I do whatever I can to get this guy off the team and just cut my losses. Given the very public and messy situation, at this point, there really isn't any other choice.