It’s been suggested elsewhere that Stephon Marbury has been MSG’s scapegoat of choice this season. Whether or not you agree with that assessment, surely James Dolan’s organization isn’t so heartless they’d allow the Knicks’ point guard to take floor for the second half of last night’s 115-109 loss to Phoenix, knowing his father had been rushed to the hospital?  From the Journal News’ Brian Heyman :

Jonathan Supranowitz, the team’s vice president of public relations, said a Garden security official told him with two minutes to go until the start of the second half that Don Marbury had left the Garden, taken by ambulance to St. Vincent’s Hospital. Supranowitz said he called the Marbury family member and she was the one who said not to say anything.Just after the final buzzer sounded, Supranowitz was told by a security official that the elder Marbury had passed away. Then a Marbury family friend told Stephon Marbury the news as well as coach Isiah Thomas.

After practice at the MSG Training Center, the Knicks expressed nothing but sympathy for Marbury, who also had an aunt, Helen Thomas, and a mentor, Robert Williams, pass away last month.

“I feel his pain,” said Zach Randolph, whose grandmother also died last month. “It’s been a tough year on him. I feel very sorry for him and his family.”

In addition to the passing of his aunt just before Thanksgiving, Marbury has also dealt with the death of childhood mentor Robert Williams within the past 3 weeks.