Report: Stephon Marbury To Boston
January 2, 2009 by Mike
From Marc Stein:
Nearly one year since Stephon Marbury last played in a regular-season game, signals are getting stronger that the New York Knicks’ outcast will eventually make his comeback with the Boston Celtics.
That still depends largely on Marbury’s ability to negotiate his release from the Knicks after weeks of fruitless and oft-contentious buyout talks, but sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN.com this week that Boston is Marbury’s preferred destination if he manages to become a free agent and that the Celtics are indeed hopeful of signing him.
Celtics general manager Danny Ainge did not immediately respond to a request for comment on a New Year’s Day holiday for the entire league and has generally refused to address the possibility of signing Marbury. Yet it’s believed that the Celtics’ concerns about their depth, after losing James Posey and P.J. Brown from last season’s title team, have swelled noticeably since they followed up the best 29-game start in NBA history at 27-2 by losing three of the next four games on the road.
It appears that the biggest obstacle to such a move is Marbury actually securing a buyout from the Knicks in a timely fashion as opposed to reservations Boston might have about Marbury’s impact on team chemistry.
Although it has been widely assumed that Celtics forward Kevin Garnett would resist a reunion with the controversial point guard — after Marbury broke up their Minnesota parternship in less than three seasons together by forcing a trade to New Jersey — one Celtics source insists that Garnett has voiced no opposition to the idea of signing Marbury for the rest of the season to strengthen Boston’s backcourt depth behind starters Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen.
When asked specifically about the likelihood of Marbury joining the Celtics this season, the source predicted that “it will happen.”
One source close to Marbury cautioned that it would be premature to say that he’s narrowed his wish list down to the Celtics, but one Western Conference executive said of the notion that Marbury is Boston-bound: “I’ve heard the exact same thing.”
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