Despite reports of his impending doom, an unfazed Stephon Marbury said he will not change plans and is heading to Las Vegas Friday to work out with Knicks veterans at a voluntary minicamp coinciding with summer league.
New hire Chris Duhon and Marbury’s potential point-guard successor is also expected to work out with Marbury in Vegas, where the Knicks summer-league team will hold its first practice Friday night. Can you say awkward?
Marbury was in the Bahamas vacationing with his family on July 4 when Duhon agreed to terms with the Knicks on a two-year contract, after which his agent, Kevin Bradbury, labeled Duhon the Knicks starting point guard.
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That further fueled speculation Marbury’s Knicks’ career was over.
“We will see how everything plays out in time,” Marbury wrote in an e-mail to The Post yesterday from Los Angeles, where he is training in the Hollywood Hills.
A source aware of Marbury’s status claims a decision won’t be made on his future until August, at the earliest, after Knicks president Donnie Walsh plays the trade market. The Knicks want to see what more they can do before deciding whether to waive Marbury.
Walsh also wants to evaluate disappointing second-year point guard Mardy Collins and combo guard Nate Robinson during summer league.
Walsh told a confidant last week he wants Duhon to push Marbury in training camp. But Walsh, a lawyer, has made misleading statements before during his brief Knicks reign.
“It’s premature,” one source said of Marbury’s release. “That hasn’t been decided. There are other things that can happen.”
Despite the company line of evaluating the roster in August, this doesn’t reek of a basketball decision. Marbury is better than any PG the Knicks have, but it seems the team wants Marbury back only as a last resort.
Marbury will perhaps become the scapegoat for last year’s sexual harassment defeat, or his exit could become a symbol of next season’s “fresh start.”
Despite attempts, it’s unlikely Marbury can be traded because they’d have to take back $21 million of contracts that expire before 2010.
Jamal Crawford, being shopped because his contract goes into 2010, could be traded, creating a stronger need for Marbury, whom Mike D’Antoni hasn’t discounted playing alongside Duhon.
His friends say Marbury isn’t worried about future employment if released. The Celtics would be on his radar, considering they need point-guard help and former teammate Kevin Garnett respects his game more than anyone. But on another level Marbury would be devastated at not getting a chance to reverse a tragic 2007-08 season where he played in just 24 games. Marbury lost his father, Donald, and lost his father figure, Isiah Thomas, in a feud that started in November, and his health, succumbing to another ankle surgery.
The Post reported last month Thomas sent Marbury home from Phoenix to be bought out of his contract. Sources believe Thomas turned on Marbury, irate at his overly blunt testimony during the trial regarding his affair with a club intern.