FanHouse Stephon Marbury

ESPN's Chris Sheridan reports on the world's first non-uStream Stephon Marbury sighting of the NBA season. It came at Madison Square Garden, where Knicks security had to ask a paid-in-full Starbury to go to his seat. Marbury had purchased a ticket in row A (that's the second row) for Saturday night's Knicks home opener against the Sixers. The only problem was that Marbury instead tried to sit in row AA (the Spike Lee zone).

Sheridan reports that Marbury spent part of the first quarter standing and recording live video of the action (as pictured). Eventually, a Madison Square Garden security guard asked Marbury to move to his actual seat. Instead of doing so, Sheridan reports that the former self-professed World's Greatest Point Guard left the arena. Front row or bust! Hilariously, according to the New York Daily News's Mitch Lawrence, a Knicks usher mistakenly sat Marbury in the front row in the first place. Whoops.

Recently, Stephon Marbury hasn't inspired much except scorn for his on-court play and head-scratching for his off-court antics.

Last season, Marbury didn't give his two employers -- the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics -- much for the $21 million he banked. But a priceless reaction he gave to a dunk six seasons ago serves as the inspiration for this series.

In 2002-03 season, Marbury teammed with a raw, rookie power forward in Phoenix named Amar'e Stoudemire. On Dec. 20, 2002, Marbury and Stoudemire worked a pick-and-roll. After a nice no-look bounce pass from Marbury, Stoudemire found himself with 15 feet of runway and only Clipper center Michael Olowokandi in his way.

Need a veteran point guard? There's still plenty to choose from in free agency.

The list, though, did get shorter with the news that Mike Wilks will sign a non-guaranteed contract with the Atlanta Hawks.

"I think he's got a decent shot to make the team,'' Wilks' agent, Bill Neff told FanHouse on Wednesday. "They don't have a lot of guards.''

The NBA has established itself as the most successful league to integrate itself with social media. The league itself is one of recognizable stars, so it only makes sense that these players further their personal brands through means like Twitter and... ahem... UStream. It's a great opportunity for players to connect with their fans in a meaningful way, on their own terms. As long as they use it responsibly and don't do anything to draw undo negative attention to themselves, it's nothing but a win-win.

In completely unrelated news, Michael Beasley did something that doesn't look too bright right now. Why, do you ask?

On Tuesday, some comments Brendan Haywood made about Stephon Marbury and perceived homosexual behavior in Marbury's lifestreaming escapades came to light. In short, Haywood said that because Marbury got a shirtless massage from a male friend and danced to a disco song on video, no NBA player would want to share a locker room with him. Because, you know, he might be gay. Kelly Dwyer and Kevin Arnovitz have both responded in exemplary fashion -- read those reactions if you care at all about the issue.

Haywood has since posted what he dubs an apology on Yardbarker. As an avowed fan of the newly unfiltered relationship between athletes and fans, I'm encouraged that Haywood knew enough to know he needed to apologize. But in that apology, Haywood invokes the name Tim Hardaway (as in, "I wasn't trying to come off like Tim Hardaway") and offers up ye old "if it doesn't affect me, I don't really care" response to the very existence of homosexuality.

In other words, Haywood notifies us that he will continue to be a part of the problem.

That should do it for Stephon Marbury's NBA career. Sure, there's a chance it might have been over anyway, but it should be official now.

Marbury was shown the other day on his livestream smoking marijuana, then later acknowledged that he occasionally smokes weed. He added the caveat that "he's not under contract right now" so he's "following the rules."

This whole new media thing is pretty interesting, especially in terms of seeing how professional athletes keep finding creative ways to reach out to their fans. While some NBA stars like Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard seem to have it figured out, others like Stephon Marbury are, well ... struggling to use the technology correctly.

Taking a page from Marbury's playbook, Ron Artest went ahead and gave his phone number out to his over 29,000 followers on Twitter. And just to make sure you knew he was really answering those calls himself, Artest made a little video clip of the stunt, which of course we have for you below. It's so serious.

In our inaugural edition of the NBA Twitter mailbag, we've got some interesting topics to get us started. How will Shaq's ego fit in Cleveland? Is Kevin Durant getting the attention he deserves? And what's left on the Celtics' summer to-do list?

These questions and more, answered for you below.

As the seemingly endless hours of live video from Stephon Marbury continue to pile up, one thing has become clear: This is no longer must-see TV.

Between simply flooding the market with content and the fact that no one in the world can be entertaining for that many consecutive hours at a time, the Marbury experiment has devolved into a deranged, sad event that fewer and fewer people are finding compelling for any sort of positive reason.

But hey, that doesn't mean there won't be highlights! Take the following video clip, for example, where Marbury's car gets hit as he's coming to you live from the back seat.

The 2009 NBA season could be considered the season of Twitter, as the NBA was at the forefront of the explosion of the micro-blogging service. Twitter became the go-to communication tool for many NBA players because of its ease of use and because it enabled them to reach their fans without the help of mainstream media.

But if the 2009 season was the season of Twitter, then the 2010 season might be the year of Ustream. Ustream (and competing services such as Justin.tv) is a web platform that allows for "lifecasting" and streaming of live events via a web cam or some high-end phones.