Marbury, who hasn't played this season after being exiled by D'Antoni, was fined and suspended for allegedly "refusing" to play in Detroit on Wednesday. D'Antoni, in a stunning reversal, not only offered him a chance to play that night, but - as reported exclusively in The Post - a chance to be the starting shooting guard for the rest of the season.

"A player's central obligation is to provide his professional services when called up," Walsh, who is in Indiana with family, said in a statement. "Because he refused the coach's request to play in the team's last game, we had no choice but to impose disciplinary action."

One source familiar with their Detroit conversation Wednesday claims Marbury snapped at the New York Knicks coach while D'Antoni was trying to convince him of the merits of resuming his career as a starter, even telling him they may sign him for one more year if he plays well.

The source said D'Antoni told him it was a "win-win" situation and only could be good for Marbury's stalled career.

The source said Marbury yelled back, "You're not the expert on what's good for my career!"

Marbury stuck to his guns yesterday, saying he did not deserve to be fined or suspended and never "refused" to play.

"It's a plain lie," Marbury said. "I didn't tell him I wasn't going to play. That's an automatic suspension. All he had to do is make sure my jersey was in my locker. If my jersey was in my locker, I would've played. He chose not to play me."

This may be viewed as semantics by outraged Knicks fans, but it will all be on the table during Monday's meeting. Biagas said the union plans to appeal the fine. Still on the table is last year's unresolved appeal, stemming from Marbury being docked a game's pay for bolting Phoenix in a dispute with Isiah Thomas. He has not been paid that money either.

When asked yesterday why he didn't order Marbury to play, D'Antoni said, "You ever coach? Do you want guys who really don't want to play. You want 10 guys ready to play hard."

Under the suspension, Marbury can't attend practices or tonight's game against Golden State. He loses $199,000 in pay from the one-game suspension and is docked the same amount for the Detroit game.

D'Antoni admitted he could have erred by banishing Marbury at the season's start, not anticipating Walsh was looking to shake up the roster by trading long-term contracts such as the one given Jamal Crawford, who returns tonight with the Warriors.

"We tried to make best decision at the time," D'Antoni said. "Whether it works out or not wouldn't be the first time things didn't work out."

Posted by BlueSeats:

This is becoming surreal.

Donnie has got to come up to speed. His first order of business should have been freeing the franchise of all associations with Marbury and Isiah, both who should have been out the door with Larry Brown.

This is like having a gangrene foot and putting a plastic bag over it and baking it in the sun.

[Edited by - blueseats on 11-29-2008 10:49 AM]

Posted by Anji:

Posted by BRIGGS:

You can tell from everything Dantoni says or has said he is not down with this gig in terms of blow up. He wants to win now at all costs--and that is proven if he really did offer Marbury the starting 2G. Listen--what coach would be down with taking two 20 point scorers--one of which was playing at near all star level off the team for chumps after 11 games. Heck we were pretty good --shouldve been 7-3 and we had ammo coming back in 3 6-11 guys. And we couldve chosed to use Marbury from day 1 as well to help the club. This is so far away from 2010 that it will becoming annoying for the game of basketball and I don't blame Barkley for what he said--because he is right. We'll get some FA in 2010 or 2011 but like everything else that has gone wrong with the Knicks we FIXATE on one thing. I'm OK with Craw moving on because its likely he may have opted out anyway. and If he didnt we saved 10mm+ for 2010--just enough to get us a lebron James. Giving up Randolph for nothing was a whole different beast. We couldve stayed the way we were and chnaged up things after the season OR if a deal to good to eb true came along. The deals we made were fair at best--and you can tell the coach is not down with it. We have bought into horrible teams for 2 more years when it didnt have to be that way. We couldve been competitive and reached fA in 2010 with more of a team intact.

YOu can tell with everything Mike'D says he isn't in the loop on most things.

Media asks him about Danillo, and Mike D says Walsh/the scouts made a great pick

People wonder why Marbury doesn't play, but if you remember Walsh told him to come back in the best shape of his life. Mike'D had nothing to do with Marbury believing he was going to play.

Now he says he had no warning before the roster shake up. The worst part about the trades was that you could have traded them for that at any point in the season or offseason, so why after 11 games???

I want to know what is Walsh doing by keeping the head coach in the dark like this.

Posted by BasketballJones:

Posted by BlueSeats:

This is becoming surreal.

Donnie has got to come up to speed. His first order of business should have been freeing the franchise of all associations with Marbury and Isiah, both who should have been out the door with Larry Brown.

This is like having a gangrene foot and putting a plastic bag over it and baking it in the sun.

[Edited by - blueseats on 11-29-2008 10:49 AM]

I know. It's f'ng awesome!

Posted by nysportsfan11:

D'Antoni seems to be a little in over his head lately as if Donnie's giving him enough rope to hang himself. I like Donnie and think this is just a naive hiccup, but it's a little disconcerting that the Pacers (who were pushing him out anyway) are going through the same EXACT situation and handling it a hell of a lot better. And Larry isn't even considered half the decision maker that Donnie is around the league.

I understand you want to give your coach leeway and let him do him, and I understand that D'Antoni is very Brown-ish in his relationships with GM's, but they have to get on the same page, immediately. Either that or D'Antoni needs to stop ****ing with the head of a mental patient by lying to him. Even Marbury's not dumb enough to believe he'd ever be re-signed.

The Knicks handling of Marbury isn't going to garner Steph any sympathy around the league contrary to Berman's knob slobbing beliefs, but it does make the Knicks look like the same ol Knicks in other locker rooms.

[Edited by - nysportsfan11 on 11-29-2008 10:57 AM]

Posted by loweyecue:

Posted by nysportsfan11:

D'Antoni seems to be a little in over his head lately as if Donnie's giving him enough rope to hang himself. I like Donnie and think this is just a naive hiccup, but it's a little disconcerting that the Pacers (who were pushing him out anyway) are going through the same EXACT situation and handling it a hell of a lot better. And Larry isn't even considered half the decision maker that Donnie is around the league.

I understand you want to give your coach leeway and let him do him, and I understand that D'Antoni is very Brown-ish in his relationships with GM's, but they have to get on the same page, immediately. Either that or D'Antoni needs to stop ****ing with the head of a mental patient by lying to him. Even Marbury's not dumb enough to believe he'd ever be re-signed.

The Knicks handling of Marbury isn't going to garner Steph any sympathy around the league contrary to Berman's knob slobbing beliefs, but it does make the Knicks look like the same ol Knicks in other locker rooms.

[Edited by - nysportsfan11 on 11-29-2008 10:57 AM]

Some people never learn. How anyone can believe all the garbage Marbury spews to the media is beyond my comprehension, especially after going through this same **** with the last four coaches. DOLAN wont let them cut him, what are they supposed to do? The Pacer's dont have DOLAN do they?

Posted by GallOfFame:


LOL @ offering him a contract extension for 1yr. D'anPhony Balony strikes again