I'm in a Knick frame of mind today -- I'm going to see Warriors vs. Knicks in the Garden tonight -- so I am especially drawn to this bit of Marbury insight from Tommy Craggs of New York magazine:

"I think he's lost his mind," says Jeffrey "Slice" Morton, an old friend who lived with Marbury during his rookie year in Minnesota until the two had a falling-out and who now speaks with him only intermittently. "He says he's seen the light, but people that are saved don't act the way he acts. I think he's confused."

Marbury may be crazy, but he's no one's fool. As Morton also observed, in reference to Marbury's "Coney Island's Finest" tattoo, "Stephon is gonna do anything in his power to be the finest, manipulating, destroying, conniving-whatever he's gotta do." It may be distasteful, it may be incredibly selfish, and it may be conveyed verbally via non sequiturs, but his style does get a certain kind of results. Marbury himself had admitted as much. In the midst of our upbeat Charleston conversation about religion and the new season, he raised the subject of his reputation for selfishness.

"If I didn't play the way how I played, I wouldn't have gotten no max contract," he said. "They can talk about whatever they wanna talk about me, because I got maxed. I'm a max player. Don't get mad at me, because I'm telling you what's real. One plus one is two, all day long, and it's never gonna change. And that's factorial."