D'Antoni on Marbury: "My Vision of the Team is on a Different Track"

During John Thompson's TNT interview with Mike D'Antoni, the Knicks Coach uttered the understatement of the year when explaining why shoot first (and second and third, with the fourth option being dribbling until he can shoot) point guard Stephon Marbury has been exiled: "My vision of the team is on a different track...Steph is the type of player who you give the team--or a big part of the team--or nothing."

Remember how on "Star Trek" there was a "universal translator" that could translate any language? If we put D'Antoni's comments into the "basketball universal translator" then we discover that he simply chose a tactful way of saying, "Look, I'm trying to put together a team that plays hard, plays together and whose number one goal is winning games. I have absolutely no use for an uncoachable player who has delusions of grandeur and is entirely consumed by self centered objectives when he is on the court. We might not be able to trade Marbury but I sure as hell don't have to let him and his bad attitude anywhere near the team."