PHILADELPHIA – Stephon Marbury said his father would’ve wanted him to play last night. He tried but couldn’t.
One day after his father’s funeral, Marbury realized after one half he wasn’t ready. Not mentally or physically.
Marbury benched himself at intermission, and the Knicks seemed in the same malaise in dropping a 101-90 decision to the 76ers at Wachovia Center.
Marbury, who joined the club in their Philadelphia hotel late Thursday night after the funeral, hadn’t slept in five days. His 13-minute, 1-for-2, 2-point outing was indicative.
“I’m just drained, emotionally and mentally,” Marbury said. “The physical aspect, you play basketball all your life. You know how to do that. But my mind was tired. I couldn’t get in the physical aspect of playing the game. I’m still coping with something. I need to get my body some rest.”
Marbury said he will try to play tonight vs. the Sixers at the Garden, where a moment of silence will be held for Donald Marbury, who died of a heart attack Sunday night after having chest pains while watching Knicks-Suns.
At halftime, Marbury made the call.
“I just told him [coach Isiah Thomas] I wasn’t going to be able to really help the team and I didn’t want to hinder the team from having a chance to win,” Marbury said.
“I just buried my father yesterday [Thursday]. I haven’t been able to sleep. You’re asleep but you’re really not asleep. Your mind is racing. This is brand new. You could deal with people saying things about you, writing about you if you’re not playing well, but this is a real-life situation.”
At the morning shoot-around, Marbury grew misty-eyed as he talked about his father’s last day. Marbury related his father would’ve wanted him to play the second half of Sunday’s Phoenix game even as he was rushed to the hospital with chest pains. On orders from his sister, Marbury was not told his father’s situation.
“I know that being at Madison Square Garden, that’s where it happened, rushed to the hospital, he wanted me to play,” Marbury said. “He would’ve wanted me to continue to play even when he was in the hospital. My father was telling my brother, he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. Right now, he would’ve been telling me go play. (It) happened the way it was supposed to.”
In the morning, Marbury admitted the tough task of playing.
“To be honest, I don’t want to be here, but it’s something I gotta do,” Marbury said. “This is my job, what I love to do. My father’s in the ground now, nothing I could do now but grieve.
“[Thursday] night I was asking myself, ‘Am I making the right decision, going to Philly to play? Do I need more time?’ Then I said, ‘Eventually I’m going to have to play, why not jump into the fire now.’ ”
During time spent with family the past few days, Marbury put in a tape of his very first TV interview in high-school.
“Watching my first interview with Charlie Rose when I was in high school, my father, we were on TV together,” Marbury said. “I was just watching [and thinking], ‘Man, this is never going to happen again,’ realizing I’d never hear his voice again.”
Marbury did not play this game in memory of his father, though.
“My whole basketball career was a tribute to my father,” he said. “When I made it to the NBA, we all made it to the NBA.
More than 600 people jammed into the Coney Island gospel church for Thursday’s funeral.
“People that were booing were sending cards,” Marbury said. “I appreciate that.”