Lame Sports

Starbury/A-Fraud Redux

By Jason Levy

The whim of the sports gods is intriguing. Two subjects I covered in earlier posts, the embarrassing situation of the New York Knicks and the Alex Rodriguez saga, each took left turns without putting on their respective blinkers, and don’t you hate when that happens? While more drama is likely to play out down the road, here are my thoughts on the recent happenings of these Gotham giants, and different sides that can only be paired with each other.

I can’t determine if there is a right side in the Isiah Thomas-Stephon Marbury feud. Is Marbury a player worth holding on to at his $42 million price tag for the next two seasons? Unequivocally, absolutely, no! He isn’t worth the league minimum. He’s always been a player with above average stats who doesn’t improve the play of anyone around him, which as a point guard makes him pretty much worthless. In 11 NBA season (current one not included), Starbury has led his teams to the playoffs four times, twice in the past nine seasons. But he never got to fully enjoy his time in the postseason, as Marbury’s teams have been eliminated in the first round each time, including two sweeps.

But his lack of on-court success has never stopped Marbury from acting like god’s gift to basketball. He is the epitome of me-first basketball, concerned with his own stats than his team’s place in the standings. He displayed his professionalism in his old stomping grounds of Phoenix, when he disappeared from the team when he learned he was being demoted to the bench. If that’s not the definition of high class, I don’t know what is. Marbury then showed how he’s willing to be a team player by saying he’ll dish the dirt on his coach/general manager/mentor Isiah Thomas. Some face of the franchise.

So does that make Isiah Thomas and the Knicks the victims in this sad, confusing tale? Are you kidding? It was Thomas and owner James Dolan that crowned Starbury as the king of New York hoops and told anyone who would listen that the Coney Island raised Marbury would turn the Knicks into a winner. They attempted to build a team around Marbury, and we all know how that turned out. Should we now feel sorry for them because they were the only basketball insiders on the planet who didn’t know Marbury was all style and no substance?

Marbury did rejoin the team for Wednesday night’s loss to the L.A. Clippers, but who knows what will happen next. A buyout is unlikely since Dolan will have to kiss $21 million goodbye, something no businessman likes to do. A trade is less likely since they’d be hard pressed to find a team that wants him. The Knicks best course of action would be to let Marbury play out his final two years, and let him go to save up cap space when some better players are available. The Knicks and Marbury are stuck together, and they both deserve it.

Meanwhile in the Bronx, A-Rod came crawling back to the Yankees after it turned out no team was stupid enough to give one player $350 million dollars. Rodriguez can thank his beloved agent, Scott Boras, for overestimating the market and telling anyone who would listen that A-Rod’s new contract would reach Everest-like proportions. For three weeks, A-Rod looked like sports biggest buffoon starting with the opt-out announcement during the World Series clincher.

But does his return to pinstripes mean A-Rod saw the error of his (agents) ways, or is he a bigger snake in the grass for going back on everything he said (and by he, I include Boras and whatever public relations team handled A-Rod) and not even give the market a chance to produce a decent contract? A-Rod will still be the highest paid player in baseball, but the $275 million doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as $350 million. I don’t know how he’ll live with it.

The winners in this case appear to be Hank and Hal Steinbrenner and the rest of the Yankees brass. After completely mishandling the Joe Torre situation, the Yanks hired a solid replacement in Joe Girardi, opened the wallets for Jorge Posada, and got A-Rod to come back for a salary very similar to what he would’ve been paid had he signed the extension. But we can’t call the Yankees or A-Rod winner until they win a World Series together, a feat you don’t have to remind them they haven’t accomplished. The Yankees still have a lot of question marks heading into 2008, like the fact Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettite are still unsigned, and how well their young pitchers will do, but third base is no longer in question.

The Yankees and the Knicks, two teams with franchise players that don’t know if they’re coming or going, and don’t do well when it counts the most. Only in New York.

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