ESPN Inquirer: Marbury getting closer to Celts

[Reality]

Unreal Marbury will not accept 19 million for a buyout.
But, if he *sacrafices* or gets the Knicks to cave in, the espn gossip girls have Boston as the most likely spot...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3804977

In buyout negotiations to date, Marbury has refused to surrender more than $1 million of his $20.8 million salary and, at last report, was no longer offering to give back that much. The Knicks have reportedly asked Marbury to give up at least $3 million for the right to choose his next team, although they could be moved to lower those demands if a trade materializes that requires New York to open Marbury's roster spot.

[Derek Bodner]

Why would Boston want him?

[SPURSX3]

let them have him.   :

[Reality]

cheap insurance, scoring, can be dropped without any cap ramifications.

They are secure enough in their teamhood that he is not going to disrupt.  Remember what a quitter/pain Randy Moss was?  Worked out okay in 2007-8 Patsieville.

[westkoast]

Why would a team full of winners want a loser?

Cheap insurance?  For what?  In case Rondo goes down?  He is a ball distributor who does not need to dominate the ball to get things done.  Marbury does.

[Lurker]

I thought Marbury & Garnett had issues.  Why would the Celtics want to bring in a problem that will fight with its leader?

[jn]

If somehow this ends up happening and Marbury wins a ring I will give up being an NBA fan.

That is not a joke. 

[westkoast]

If somehow this ends up happening and Marbury wins a ring I will give up being an NBA fan.

That is not a joke. 

There is no way.  Not after the stunt he pulled in LA when the Knicks were in town.  I don't care how "in touch with your team hood" your squad is you do not add cancer to something that is perfectly healthy.

[Joe Vancil]

I'm pretty much in agreement with jn.

Marbury deserves to be booted from the league, not sneak onto a championship-contending roster.  As point guards go, this guy is nearly brain-dead.

My all-time favorite stupid Marbury statement - that the foreign teams at the Olympics didn't play basketball....they just try to "trick" you.

Thanks so much for that wisdom, Stephon.  Given the fact that you're part of the U.S. Olympic team with MORE LOSSES THAN ALL OTHER OLYMPIC TEAMS PUT TOGETHER, INCLUDING COLLEGIATES, I'd say you were fooled twice - once by your evaluation of the teams, and again by those "tricks" that they played on you.

[WayOutWest]

I've read a couple more stories about Stephon going to the Celtics.  Seems that the Celts, including KG, are on board with the idea.  The article also stated that if any team can absorb, and correct, Stephons behavior/prolems it's the Celts and Spurs.

He may just coat tail himself to a title after all. 

[westkoast]

I've read a couple more stories about Stephon going to the Celtics.  Seems that the Celts, including KG, are on board with the idea.  The article also stated that if any team can absorb, and correct, Stephons behavior/prolems it's the Celts and Spurs.

He may just coat tail himself to a title after all. 

LOL @ correct.  You cannot correct his attitude.  He is too old and too set in his ways.  Absorb?  Possibility.  Though if anyone has been watching any of their last 6 games you will see them yelling at each other a lot.

[Joe Vancil]

Correct OR Absorb?  Not a chance.

Bad attitudes PERMEATE, especially in an environment of GOOD attitude.  A little poison goes a long way.

Garnett may be "on board" with the idea, but that's because he believes Marbury is still the reasonably good guy he was in Minnesota.

Somewhere, Red Auerbach is rolling over in his grave at the thought that Marbury might don a Celtic jersey.

[Skandery]

I'm pretty much in agreement with jn.

Marbury deserves to be booted from the league, not sneak onto a championship-contending roster.  As point guards go, this guy is nearly brain-dead.

I seem to recall at one point you were QUITE the fan, Joe.  Of course at the time I was more enamored with his fiery teammate.  A tall, lanky kid out of Farrugut Academy, can't remember his name.

 

[Joe Vancil]

I *WAS* quite the fan...when he was a young player, in Minnesota, playing third fiddle to Garnett and Gugliotta.  My opinion soured on him quickly after he forced his way out of a developing Minnesota team.

Minnesota was the FIRST franchise Marbury helped to collapse.  It wasn't the last, either.

I don't get why Boston wants to be NEXT.

[WayOutWest]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!





On Friday night, Stephon Marbury was spotted sitting courtside for Orlando's victory over the Lakers at Staples Center in seats that belong to Lakers executive vice president of business operations Jeanie Buss, daughter of Lakers owner Jerry Buss and coach Phil Jackson's paramour.

Good timing, Steph.

On Wednesday night in San Antonio, we had a chance to check in briefly with Jackson and ask why the Lakers haven't expressed an interest in signing Marbury, who has been living and training in L.A. while in exile from the Knicks.

Jackson acknowledged that "a little bit of a dialogue" between Marbury and the Lakers has resulted from Steph's initial request for courtside seats for the Knicks' game at Staples on Dec. 16, as Marbury has permission from his Knicks bosses to speak with other teams. Jackson went on to describe Marbury as a player with "a real dynamic game" and insisted that he wouldn't have any fears about Marbury's history of clashing with coaches.

But Jackson also said firmly: "We haven't really considered it."

Marbury, of course, isn't even a free agent yet, as suspicions grow among rival teams that Knicks president Donnie Walsh is intent on keeping the 32-year-old through the Feb. 19 trading deadline just in case an unforeseen trade opportunity presents itself in the next month.

Yet Jackson also contends that the injury absence of point guard Jordan Farmar (knee) isn't as troubling as it looks for the Lakers because Lamar Odom is a trusty ballhandler ... and because there's apparently still some in-house hope that Farmar could be back before the All-Star break.

So Boston, as we've been discussing here since New Year's Day, remains the only contender with a confirmed interest in Marbury ... provided that Steph actually leaves the Knicks before March 1 so he retains playoff eligibility this season.

You'd think, if the Lakers did have a serious interest, that they'd have run this past Kobe Bryant by now.

Said Kobe on Wednesday night: "I haven't heard a whisper about that."