Stephon Marbury: 'I Got Permission to Leave'

On Tuesday, the news broke that Isiah Thomas was contemplating how to reduce Stephon Marbury's role with the Knicks. It was something of a surprise and seemingly caught Marbury off-guard, too -- the suddenly embattled point guard promptly left his teammates in Phoenix to catch a plane back to New York.

Confusion reigned as the media tried to play catch up: did Marbury go AWOL? Would he be bought out? Traded? Has he played his last game as a Knick? While most of those questions are still unanswered, Marbury did want to clear something up: he didn't leave the team without permission. Soon after his plane landed, he text-messaged the New York Post:

Marbury landed in New York about 4 p.m. and said in the message to The Post, "I have one thing to say, and that's I got permission to leave. I would never leave my team on my own. What I'm telling you is that I got permission to leave from Isiah. He said I could go home. God bless. Peace be with you."

Marbury added he was not expecting to join the team in Los Angeles tomorrow night.

"No, I'm not coming to LA as of now," he said.

Interesting. Thomas has told the media that Marbury is "welcome" to return, but the fact he also granted permission for Marbury to leave would seem to indicate that he's not necessarily torn up about the absence. That may soon change, though, as Mardy Collins, Marbury's replacement in the starting lineup, lasted just six minutes before leaving Tuesday's game with a sprained ankle. The Knicks, who were also without Zach Randolph (death in the family) and Quentin Richardson (hyperextended elbow) hung in with the Suns for a while but were no match in the end, losing 113-102.