Bad Judgment Will End Marbury's Career

That should do it for Stephon Marbury's NBA career. Sure, there's a chance it might have been over anyway, but it should be official now.

Marbury was shown the other day on his livestream smoking marijuana, then later acknowledged that he occasionally smokes weed. He added the caveat that "he's not under contract right now" so he's "following the rules."

Let's not even get into that right now. Forget about where you come down on the whole legalization of pot thing.

This is about judgment, and Marbury has shown he no longer has the judgment to run an NBA team. Of course, it's easy to insert a one-liner here about whether Marbury ever did, but the point is that this is likely the last straw with him.

What self-respecting NBA owner is going to go out and sign this guy right now?

First of all, Marbury has played sparingly and ineffectively in each of the past two seasons. Yes, there were reasons, but if Marbury were all peaches and cream he would have gotten into more than 20-some games, for whatever team, the last couple of seasons.

Marbury had a chance to have a positive impact in a reserve role for the Celtics last season and didn't come through. He went viral this offseason and it's been a disaster.

Let's be clear again that the issue isn't Marbury smoking weed. Hey, we know there are NBA players who smoke weed. Just like we know there are teachers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, secretaries and sportswriters who do it, too.

The real problem is that Marbury did it right there in front of that camera and in front of everyone, and then made it all sound like it wasn't a big deal. Maybe it's not a big deal to some. After all, there are millions upon millions out there who would like to see marijuana legalized.

But it's a big deal to owners, I'll tell you that.

Marbury is just 32 years old but is probably done playing in the NBA. If he is through, it's not going to be because he's smoked weed. It's going to be because he didn't have enough good judgment to do it someplace else.

More Steinmetz on Twitter: @matt_steinmetz