By Brian Mahoney
Associated PressGREENBURGH, N.Y. ó Stephon Marbury hasn’t been around much over the last year, so the New York Knicks had little reaction now that he won’t be back.
To them, he already was gone and forgotten.
“He hasn’t really been seen in a little while,” forward David Lee said Wednesday. “Almost somewhat of a dead issue for us because we knew at some point it would probably happen.”
Marbury’s exit may have taken longer than expected ó there was some surprise he was even with the team when training camp opened ó but the Knicks haven’t been spending much time thinking about their former captain.
“It’s not like, ‘Oh now we can really play basketball, we’re not distracted,’ ” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We weren’t distracted before.”
Nor does D’Antoni have any regrets about the way he handled his time with Marbury.
“We said all along, tough situation,” D’Antoni said. “We weren’t on the same page.”
The Knicks and Marbury finally parted ways Tuesday after reaching a buyout on the remainder of his contract that expires following this season. The point guard will be free to join a playoff contender once he clears waivers, and he’s already been linked to the Boston Celtics.
Nobody knows how much he’ll help though since he hasn’t played a regular-season game in more than a year.
“We’ll see. I don’t know,” Knicks forward Quentin Richardson said. “I don’t know what he’s been doing. I assume he’s been working out or whatever. I mean, only thing I can say is time will tell. Good luck to him.”