"You Talkin' All Reckless on the Phone..."

Steph, this ain't the Get-Indicted Hotline:

"I know I'll be able to sign with two teams,"

"The question to be asked to the Knicks is: Are they fearful for me playing for another Eastern Conference team? My thing is, they shouldn't be fearful. They're trying to get under the cap for 2010. They shouldn't be worried about me. You had guys saying I was a distraction, I'm a cancer. If I'm all those things, wouldn't you want me to go to another team?"

"It shouldn't matter that I go to Boston if you're the eighth seed and Boston is in the front...It can't be about money. The Knicks got plenty of it. It's got to be personal. If it's personal, then how is business being done there?"

"It's none of their business what I do when I get out of my deal...They say they don't want to pay me all my money, but they'll be paying me all my money anyway."

"Mr. Dolan says it's up to Donnie Walsh...Walsh told us he's got to run it through Mr. Dolan. It's kids games. Like Barack Obama said, let's put away those childish acts."

Reckless!

If the Knicks are smart, they will refuse a buyout until after March 2nd, when Stephon will no longer be eligible to join another team's playoff roster. That's the move. Period.

It might not be "right" to let Stephon dangle (). It might not be "right" to enjoin him from playing meaningful games for some other team. And there is no shortage of fault that can be attributed to Donnie Walsh if one were seeking to blame him for failing to move Stephon or take decisive action earlier. This has been a circus akin to the one which we all thought had been demoted to the basement (and which failed in its attempt to comit suicide before blaming its own daughter). But the Knicks--who currently pay Stephon to do nothing and, in a perverse way, appease him by perpetuating his outlaw status and making these outbursts far more newsworthy than they should be--do not owe him some gracious, or merely expeditious, exit. Absolutely not.

Not only has Stephon forfeited some dubious notion of implied courtesy through his antics, but the NBA is about winning. You don't bend over backwards () to help some other team. There is a contract in place, no one forced Stephon to sign it, he is getting money, and he can beef with his attorneys and the Players Association if he doesn't like the power which the Knickerbockers can exercise over his playing destiny. As he himself readily volunteers, he can always go play elsewhere.

So be strong, Donnie. Don't let this baby win, no matter how many provocative tantrums he throws.

And Steph--stop snitching!