With the Knicks on the verge of cutting bait with Stephon Marbury, perhaps as soon as today, Tim Thomas won't say he has sympathy for his former and current teammate.
But the Paterson Catholic product admits he understands what it's like to be a pariah, having spent more than half a season "with" the Bulls in a similar situation after the Knicks dealt him to Chicago three years ago in the Eddy Curry deal. "It's tough going through that," he said. "The biggest thing with him is, at least he knows what's going on. I didn't have a clue about what the [Bulls were] doing, what direction they were going, none of that."
Marbury ? who hasn't played a minute all season and was suspended Saturday for, according to the team, refusing to play Wednesday against Detroit ? should learn the direction the Knicks want to go today in a meeting with team president Donnie Walsh.
Buyout talks (which have gone nowhere thus far) will resume, Walsh said, with the only other logical option at this point being something Thomas experienced with Chicago: a "stay home and we'll keep paying you" agreement, to which Marbury would have to consent.
Thomas, however, actually played three games for the Bulls at the start of the 2005-06 season before he found himself in limbo. He wasn't bought out until March 1, 2006, then signed with the Mike D'Antoni-coached Suns two days later.
"All they had to do was tell me, 'This is the direction that we're going,' similar to what they told [Marbury], and I would've understood that," Thomas said.
Instead, he spent most of his downtime living in New Jersey with his family. He eventually spent three months with the Suns (with whom he took the opportunity of a trip to play the Nets to rip the Bulls), then signed that summer with the Clippers, who traded him back to the Knicks 10 days ago.
"I just handled it the best way, the most professional way I [could] until I started getting ripped about me being a bad guy in the locker room and all that other stuff," he said. "You've always got to protect yourself."
D'ANTONI'S LATEST DIG: Although he may not have quite meant it, something the Knicks' coach said about Nate Robinson playing through his groin injury certainly sounded like another dig at Marbury.
"He's not thinking he's on the last year of his contract," D'Antoni said of Robinson, who could return for Tuesday's game against Portland after sitting out the last two. "He's got a heart."
MOBLEY UPDATE: Cuttino Mobley, who saw a heart specialist in Boston last week after his physical with the Knicks raised a red flag about an undisclosed condition, will undergo further tests this week to determine if he can play.
Walsh insists he knew nothing about the condition the Clippers say Mobley played with before he was traded to the Knicks (with Thomas) for Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins. The Knicks' fear (which Walsh won't express) is that Mobley won't be cleared to play.
CURRY STATUS QUO: What the Knicks call a right knee "bone bruise" that has sidelined Eddy Curry since the preseason isn't improving, D'Antoni said, meaning the center's return remains uncertain.
"I don't know where [his conditioning] is," D'Antoni said. "I think he tried to run a little bit and didn't feel great."
BY THE NUMBERS: David Lee's 37-point, 21-rebound game Saturday were the highest totals for a Knick since Patrick Ewing produced 36 and 21 on Jan. 23, 1994.
Chris Duhon's franchise-record 22 assists not only bettered Richie Guerin's franchise-record 21, but the current Garden mark of 19, shared by, among others, Marbury.
E-mail: adamek@northjersey.com
