"Teammates should always stick together," goes the saying — but in 2007, Stephon Marbury put that to the test when he refused to suit up for the New York Knicks despite being fully available to play.
His reasons may have been complex, but the message to his running mates was clear. For Quentin Richardson , it felt like a betrayal. In an ESPN interview at the time, the now-Knuckleheads podcast host didn't hold back, publicly calling out "Starbury" for choosing not to take the floor.
Marbury was no stranger to controversy during his more than 20-year pro basketball career, and his time with the Knicks , which began in January 2004, was no exception.
Known for his clashes with authority figures, the former 6'2" point guard butted heads with three head coaches in New York: Larry Brown, Isiah Thomas and later Mike D'Antoni.
The last of the three, D'Antoni , took over on the sidelines in May 2008, after making a name for himself with the "Seven Seconds or Less" Phoenix Suns . Despite that reputation, it didn't take long for tensions to show.
During training camp, after watching the team's guards battling it out for the starting spots, the Italian-American head coach reportedly offered Marbury, a two-time All-Star, around 30 minutes of playing time.
Stephon, a starter in previous years, saw it as a sign he'd slipped in the pecking order — and that's when the rift began. Unhappy, the then 31-year-old had no plans to play at all. After four and a half years with the team, he felt he and the Knicks had already parted ways.
Unsurprisingly, the team's leadership was upset by the players' refusal to suit up. What was more striking, though, was how his own teammates responded.
Usually, locker rooms stick together during tough times, often calling their bond a "brotherhood." But with the Knicks that year, it was different — and again, not much time passed before tensions boiled over.
Early in the 2008-09 regular season, Marbury, still sitting out, hadn't logged a single minute. Meanwhile, the team from the "Big Apple" was struggling to fill their rotation. While absences kept piling up, D'Antoni became desperate to put anyone on the roster just to meet the numbers.
You'd think it was the perfect time for Marbury to return — maybe even to play his way into the starting lineup. Yet, he stood firm and didn't back down from his decision — showing no willingness to compromise at all — which made his teammates, so desperately in need of support, snap.
Richardson — one of the last guys still standing — was one of the most prominent voices voicing that frustration.
"Regardless of what you have going on with the organization or what you have going on with your coach or whatever — you're not going to allow your teammates to be left out there the way we were basically being left out there," he said, per ESPN.
"This is directed at us regardless if you're trying to stick it to whoever you're trying to stick it to," added Q-Rich. "At the end of the day we're shorthanded, people are hurt. Once again, I don't pay attention to [Stephon] because I don't look at him as a teammate anyway."
Even being called out by a teammate didn't change his mind, and with Marbury still refusing to play, the situation turned into a deadlock. It was eventually resolved through a buyout, after which the now 48-year-old joined the Boston Celtics on February 25, 2009.
