(above : paragon of accuracy, taking the high road, etc. )

“Having gained entrance to Skidmore College’s avant-garde, well-lit recreation arena that flaunts three full courts, I stood hypnotized on its top level thinking I’d spotted Stephon Marbury and Zach Randolph in a scrimmage with an Allan Houston double,” writes the New York Post’s Peter Vescey of his first visit to Knicks training camp this Autumn. “My feet failed me long ago; my arthritic fingers can’t hold or tie anything; and now my eyes must be lying to my face…how can Marbury possibly still be an active member of the Knicks? Unless my short-term memory, too, is a shambles, I swear I read a couple weeks ago in Newsday the Knicks were days away from outright releasing him or agreeing to a buyout of this season’s $21.9 million guarantee.” And thus begins yet another Poison Pete challenge to a local colleague’s credibility, the sort of which Filip Bondy is all too familiar with.

How could the author be wrong when months ago his newspaper was purchased by Cablevision, the same entity that owns the Knicks, the team he has covered for over a year?

On the other hand, while I applaud Cablevision for not giving preferential treatment to an employee, it might improve the Newsday reporter’s rate of accuracy if he developed an actual, trustworthy source within the Knicks’ basketball department. Had that been accomplished over the summer he may have discovered the following:

Regardless of whether Donnie Walsh hired D’Antoni or Mark Jackson, his game plan upon arriving from Indiana was to get the most out of Marbury’s unmistakable (browbeaten) flair for his final season in New York; he’d have to lead the Knicks to a title to get offered a new contract.

Understanding that a sensible trade, one in which his franchise wasn’t yet again forced to assume a longer financial burden than the one on its cap, was unachievable, the idea is to place Marbury in position where he can succeed.

Contrary to continuing accounts, not once has Walsh contemplated cutting, paying off or buying out Marbury. Furthermore, not once has James Dolan been consulted about the prospects of doing any such thing.

This just in: three Newsday sources confirm Zach Marbury is not a Knick.