The Knicks’ No. 1 basket case was laughing all the way to Los Angeles yesterday.
After seeing The Post’s front page – on which he was depicted on a milk carton as a missing person – point guard Stephon Marbury sent an e-mail to the paper from an LA-bound plane yesterday morning.
“I must say the front page of The Post has to be the funniest thing I have ever seen in a long time,” he wrote. “I’m sitting on the plane laughing. You have to love New York. The big onion will either make you laugh or make you cry.”
Marbury arrived in La-La Land at noon, and played last night against the Clippers – coming off the bench and scoring nine points in a 84-81 loss – a day after he’d bolted from the team before a game in Phoenix against the Suns following a heated argument with coach Isiah Thomas.
Marbury had spent Tuesday night in his native Coney Island, attending a memorial service for Robert “Mr. Lou” Williams, one of his childhood coaches and mentors. Marbury told The Post he found out about Williams’ death when he arrived in New York earlier that day.
Sources said Marbury and Thomas had gotten into an argument Monday shortly after flying to Arizona. Thomas told Marbury he was considering taking him out of the starting lineup.
They disagreed on Marbury’s performance in the first five games of the season. The argument, and Marbury’s sudden departure, raised the possibility of him being bounced from the team.
A players-union source says the Knicks are considering fining Marbury one game’s pay – about $185,000 – for missing the 113-102 drubbing in Phoenix.
According to the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, players are docked 1/110th of their salaries for a missed game without a reasonable excuse. Marbury is set to earn $20.1 million this season.
In a series of text messages to The Post Tuesday afternoon, Marbury claimed Thomas had given him permission to travel.
“I have one thing to say, and that’s I got permission to leave,” Marbury claimed. “I would never leave my team on my own. What I’m telling you is that I got permission to leave from Isiah. He said I could go home.”
When Thomas was asked if he gave Marbury permission to leave, he didn’t deny it but said, “The conversations we had in-house, we’ll try to keep it there.”
Marbury’s contract pays him $42 million over the next two years, which makes him untradeable. The Knicks’ easiest way to get rid of him would be through a buyout. Over the summer, Marbury told The Post that he was ready to play in Italy when his contract was up in two years, partly to internationally market his discount Starbury sneakers.
That remark ticked off owner James Dolan, who may view Marbury’s Tuesday desertion as the final straw; he already wasn’t pleased with the revelation during a sex-harassment trial against Thomas that Marbury had a sexual encounter with an MSG intern.