This video of Stephon Marbury Sunday Night NBC sports TV show Mike'd Up has been circulating around the Internet for a minute. People have talked at length about the, "I'm gonna average 10 points, 12, 13 dimes, 2-3 assists," miscue. And everybody talks about the comments about he made about his sister, which, if you really think about what he was saying, in the context in which he was making the statement, was nothing.

But. Stephon Marbury uttered a remark which I cannot forgive; not as an on-air joke with potentially millions of people watching and listening - not toward women and certainly not toward his wife. At the 7:07 mark in the video his cell phone rings. Apparently, it's his wife. He says:

On June 22 Terry "Tank" Johnson, formerly of the Chicago Bears, was arrested at 3:30 a.m. in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert for suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI). He was initially pulled over for allegedly driving 40 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone. Gilbert police spokesman, Sgt. Andrew Duncan, said Johnson was arrested for "DUI Impaired to the Slightest Degree" but was released without being booked or charged.

Two days later Mike Mulligan of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Bears were going to wait for the results of the blood-alcohol tests before making an announcement as to Johnson's fate. The following day Sports Illustrated and Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander had this to say about Johnson:

Tonight the 2007 NBA Draft takes place. I decided to have a little party here at TSF tonight and provide brief summations and any additional musings for each pick and trade. So, "follow me follow me follow me" as a very young Calvin Cordozar Broadus so famously said from Greg Oden (Ric Bucher, the world's main NBA head who speaks with everyone in the Lig, and is mos' def in the know, says Portland is taking Oden with the #1 pick) to the final pick of the evening.

Andrew Bogut spoke out in a Sydney Morning Herald newspaper feature by David Sygall on his perception of the state of America and it black NBA mirror. I included Bogut's words and my opinion of them in a Friday collection of sports briefs.

People got -- angry. They went off on Bogut. Slammed his words. Attacked him personally. Attacked his game. The comment section here at The Starting Five (TSF) was crazy heated. I defended Bogut's view of the U.S. and his general view of NBA players. This is one time the Internet served "the better good."

Chauncey Billups has opted out of his contract with the Detroit Pistons and will become a free agent on July 1 while Kevin Durant is now with Adidas.

Sammy Sosa just hit number 600 against the Chicago Cubs and number 601 against the Houston Astros. The question now rages in earnest, does he belong in the Hall of Fame?

Let's take a brief look take a brief look inside Sosa's numbers and his all-around play, and compare him with other greats in an attempt to discern whether or not he is Hall worthy.

Usually there's not much news on Sunday, but Kobe Bryant just dropped a Father's Day bombshell on his kb24.com website. Bryant simply wants out of Los Angeles. After further discussions with Lakers owner Jerry Buss and another Lakers "insider" telling the media that the reason why LA isn't succeeding at present is Kobe, it will take a miracle for Bryant to stay in LA. Here's what Kobe has to say:

Barry Bonds is about to get it. While almost all of the BALCO-related headlines scream of Bud Selig's threat to suspend Jason Giambi and of ex Bonds attorney Troy Ellerman's plea bargain being rejected, Bonds is on the verge of receiving his just desserts.

There is no big article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Or the San Jose Mercury-News. Or the Oakland Tribune. There's no mention of it in USA Today, or the New York Times. But Bonds' time apparently has come - and if it does, it will hit the sporting world like a ton of bricks.

America loves a good nightmare image. Scott Petersons appear on magazine covers, grayed-out images of ghost-like horror or the opposite: HD color so stark 3-D glasses are not needed to feel his hands push us down on the killing floor.

Michael Vick is now one of those faces: the face of America's latest dark alley - dog fighting. His image, dark skin - no need of a blackening a la Time Magazine and O.J. - and cornrows, the post-New jack thug hair style, represent everything left to fear in the ancient image of the animalistic, hated colored man; the barbarous negro running wild in a stadium too-near to you.

My gawd! Did he just flip off that New Orleans Saints fan?! My gawd, did he contract a venereal disease?! My gawwwwd, he-it-the football player tried to go through an airport with a water bottle full of "negro-go-crazy" juice- marijuana; aphrodisiac of the 50-Cent Mile High Club.

When I read that Genarlow Wilson was not being released from prison, I began to cry.

Wilson was a star in the classroom and highly-regarded prep football player in Georgia who held Detroit Lions first round draft choice Calvin Johnson to four receptions in two games. Most prominent in his box of football recruiting letters were the ones from the Ivies: Brown and Columbia. He was known as an overachiever. He was also the homecoming king at his high school, Douglas County High.

At a New Years Eve party in 2003, Wilson, then age 17, had consensual oral sex with a 15-year old girl. According to everyone at the party, the girl in question, and even the prosecutor of Wilson's case agreed that she initiated the act.

But according to an antiquated, archaic Georgia state law, it was a felony to engage in consensual oral sex with a minor. At the same time, it is a misdemeanor - the "Romeo and Juliet" law - to engage in consensual sexual intercourse with a minor.

Since Tony Parker finally earned Gregg Popovich's trust, he's gone slam off on everybody! He is completely confident that no guard in the Lig can stop him. He's much, much stronger than anyone thinks he is, because, outside of Allen Iverson and Dwayne Wade, Parker hits the floor more than anyone in the NBA.

After a Game One strafing by Parker, Mike Brown chose to force Parker to hit jumpers. Brown and his staff of ex-Spurs coaches forgot that Popovich knew that would be the Cavs' major defensive change (I can see Parker taking extra jumpers after practice between Game One and tonight). So what happened?

You know how you can tell when it's more important to kill the message a person is trying to get across, especially a black person, especially a black person talking about racism; especially a black person talking about racism who is generally disliked by the press; especially a black athlete who dares speak out about any race issues?

Quote him literally:

"When you see a black face on TV and they start talking, English comes out. That's what I said. I ain't taking a shot at them or nothing. I'm just telling it like it is....

"So there are a lot of factors involved you look at. I'm not saying you can tell them what to do and it'll be 'yes sir' and 'no sir.' I'm just saying from a grand scheme of things."

When I read Gary Sheffield's quotes, poor grammar and all, I knew there was a problem. And don't give me the bullshit about editorial accuracy. Lots of athletes say ain't when speaking, many athletes' grammar leaves something to be desired. If every athlete was quoted exactly as the words exited their mouths, we'd spend as much time attempting to decipher their words as trying to understand what they were attempting to relate to the interviewer.

Bye-by Kobe. Can you say Sisyphus?

----------

What franchise is worth more, the NBA or Nike? Oh, I thought so. Because Bron Bron, the Game One idiot savant with his idiosyncratic way of pounding opposing players with his body on the way to the rack like the cartoon Bam Bam, sloughed off the "idiot" and looks more like Superman in red wine shorts. Last night can now be forever known as, "That Knight," not for King James, but for Phil.

Yes, last night was the moment Phil Knight was praying for. The 20th-century Gatorade man's legacy - the legacy partially built by Knight and filmed by Spike Lee - was about to take its final lap and he wasn't making the farewell look very good; $$$$$$$$$$$$ - yeah, that many to his wife; that blasphemous score of Dwight Howard's dunk told the observant he was growing old quite ungracefully.

After the talking-to's by Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, after the accusations hurled from every corner of the press and from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), it appears that Michael Vick is innocent, after all. Rather than cave into mounting pressure from the Humane Society and from all corners of the press, Surry County prosecutor (Virginia Commonwealth Attorney) Gerald Poindexter waited until all the evidence surrounding the house bought by Michael Vick for his cousin Davon Boddie to come in before judging the innocence or guilt of Vick.

The investigation into Michael Vick and dog fighting apparently had origins in an April 20 arrest of Boddie where he gave the address to police in Hampton, Virginia. Boddie was arrested for possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute. Police then procured a search warrant and on Wednesday, April 25 searched the home for signs of drugs and or drug paraphernalia.

That the police found it necessary to immediately seek a search warrant for the address and its home is a questionable act. Young black man lives in an exclusive rural setting in a 4,700 square foot home? With cursory research the police surely found that the owner of the home was Michael Vick (Vick recently sold the manse for what was called a "cut-rate" price). What was just another black man perhaps selling a little weed became a potential cause celebre calling for swift action.