Estranged New York Knicks' guard Stephon Marbury was told on Monday to stay away from the team after talks on a possible buyout of his $21 million contract failed to produce a settlement.
"After meeting with Stephon and his representative this afternoon, we have directed Stephon not to participate in practice or attend games until further notice," Knicks' president Donnie Walsh said in a statement.
"We want to continue to meet with him to discuss a long-term resolution."
The 31-year-old Marbury, with a career scoring average of 19.7 points per game over 12 years with four clubs, has not played a single minute this season.
Marbury, who had running feuds with the two previous Knicks coaches, was shunned at the start of the season by Mike D'Antoni and placed on the inactive list, attending games in street clothes.
After a series of trades and injuries left the Knicks severely short-handed, Marbury was asked to play but he declined.
Walsh suspended Marbury for one game without pay and docked him an additional game's salary, forfeiting close to $400,000 after his refusal to play last week in a loss to Detroit.
The Knicks' president is against cutting Marbury and having to pay his salary even though he would be free to shop himself to another NBA team. Marbury, meanwhile, has said he wants to be paid in full by New York.
The bad blood between the native New Yorker and the Knicks spilled into print when the guard blasted Knicks player Quentin Richardson for critical comments made about him.
"I sat there for three weeks and didn't say one word," Marbury told the New York Post on Monday. "I didn't hear one of my teammates say, 'Why isn't Stephon Marbury playing?
"Guys like Quentin Richardson say, 'I don't consider him a teammate. He let his teammates out to dry.'
"He didn't care I was his teammate when I was banished. They left me out for dead. It's like we're in a foxhole and I'm facing the other way. If I got shot in the head, at least you want to get shot by the enemy. I got shot in the head by my own guys in my foxhole."
(China Daily December 3, 2008)
