When I started this blog, it was obviously with a bit of irony that I gave it the name I did. Starting a bandwagon for one of the biggest market teams in professional basketball, one that still remains the strongest financially and has a rich history?

I don't feel the need to dwell on the recent down years of the franchise -- take a look at what Mike K at Knickerblogger has done in celebrating the anniversary of his very fine blog, in constructing his Quinquennial Knick team with the same excellent, sober-minded analysis that has distinguished his efforts since he started Knickerblogger.  This "all-star" team of the best of the Knicks over the last five years is frightening in so many ways.

With the arrival of Mike D'Antoni, even understanding that a great deal of cleaning-up needed to be done, I already felt that the Knicks were turning a corner. Without being privy to the politics of the organization, I knew Marbury wasn't likely to have a prominent role with the 2008-09 Knicks, or any role at all. Writing this post surprises me, frankly, because I fully expected this blog to be a Marbury-free zone.

But we've seen a long, drawn-out drama play itself out over this season, and even as Marbury is now free to sign with another team, I suspect there will be more revelations and more spin to come as his progress with his next team will be anxiously tracked. Morality plays involving the character of the ousted player and the dysfunctional organization that spurned him will undoubtedly be constructed -- can Stephon be reformed? Is he simply misunderstood? Are the Knicks really past the drama, the selfishness, the bad decisions of the Isiah years? Without Starbury to kick around, will Dolan continue to cast a cloud over the future success of the Knicks?

I don't have any interest in such questions, at least not at the level that the tabloids and certain other news outlets tend to pose them. I have always been a basketball fan, but I've taken breaks from being a Knick fan (at least an avid one). Stephon Marbury is probably as big a reason as any why that is the case, and why I had to get back to "bandwagon" mode when D'Antoni was hired. I have watched a lot of basketball for over 20 years, and there are few star professional players I have connected with less than Marbury. I admired his game in college as a hotshot freshman, but watching him play for various professional teams over the years always produced a curiously blank feeling.

This is unusual for me -- I take pride in being enough of a fan to be able to identify aspects of players (even ones I dislike or who play for teams I dislike) that make them likable, or admirable, or worthy of grudging respect from opponents. There are many players in the NBA that represent squandered potential, sloth, and underachievement, but most of the time I appreciate them for what they are  (a sense of humor and the blogosphere help a great deal in this regard) and I consider such players part of the fabric that makes the NBA what it is. At worst, the disappointments make you appreciate the stars and overachievers that much more.

But with Marbury, it's been mostly detachment and some disappointment at all the bad choices he has made.  I mainly remember little things,  like the humorous spat between him and Garnett over his assessment of a young Amare (KG: "Out of all his things, he's got what, three kids, a wife, bills. But I'm on his mind every day. It's kind of flattering. It's like a girl."), and I do recall a bit of his game against Spain as a member of the 2004 Olympic team. I've watched the quirky videos and laughed, as most did; I read The Last Shot.  But I never felt I was watching or reading about someone who was part of something that meant something to me. As a Knick, he simply did not connect.

I found myself occasionally getting angry and indignant over some of the developments in the cold war between Marbury and the Knick organization, but I came to realize that I was upset with some fans continuing to defend him, especially as his behavior became more self-defeating around his role with the Knicks and the buyout. There was nothing to defend as far as I was concerned, and quite frankly, one of my favorite moments as a Knick fan came when D'Antoni said so in so many words to fans in the stands.  And it's heartening to see that the decision to exile Marbury quickly is now being seen as the strategically sound and very necessary move that it was.

Other blogs more steeped in the documentation and history of the Marbury era in New York will have anecdotes, stories, a fond remniscence, a lament over lost opportunities,  or a wish that he finds his way wherever he ends up. I don't wish him ill, though as a non-Celtic fan, I won't be rooting for him either (if that is where he ends up). He will surely test the chemistry of any team he ends up with, even as a role player.

The oddest thing is that all his non-activity this season may have made me pay more attention to him than I ever had when he was playing as a Knick, and I'll probably get sucked into his latest tale of attempted self-redemption at his next outpost.

But I mostly feel relief that some weird black hole, some energy-sapping void has been removed from the New York Knicks.

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