Yesterday Stephon Marbury captured our collective politically infused hearts with a touching story of homelessness and Presidential debates. Heck, he even got to start for the Knicks last night.
But now comes the downfall: Starbury has, by all accounts in the New York Times, fallen victim to great hubris. Or he just really hates Eddie House.
Marbury celebrated his first start with some solid play and a vicious verbal duel with House while House was sitting on the bench. It lasted several minutes and several possessions.
After Marbury drew a foul on Kendrick Perkins and hit two free throws, he turned and screamed at House, from midcourt: "You're a bum!"
When play returned to the Celtics' side of the court, House chirped, "Don't worry about me. You better worry about Ray Allen," whom Marbury was guarding. Marbury shot back, "You're nothing!" then added, "You're caught up in basketball. Get caught up in life."
I have several problems with this trash talk scenario. First of all, Eddie House ... dude, brah. Come on. I know you are in fact Eddie House, but you can't run your mouth back at a guy with a giant "3" tattooed on his head by telling him to look out for someone else.
But perhaps worse than that, Marbury now appears to be some crusader of "life". Which is the bad half of the yin-yang type personality he has. Don't get me wrong -- I want unfiltered, unexpected homeless shelter acts. What I don't want is any on-court moral chastising of other players about how to reach a proper balance between work and life.
