Not a big sports day today, but there are a couple of stories that deserve discussing.

Knicks, Marbury Saga Continues:The New York Knicks and Stephon Marbury continue to live without each other as Marbury grieves over the death of his father. The Knicks have given Marbury as much time as he needs, but he is having trouble in the situation. This comes after Marbury left a game against Phoenix before the game started, because he was taken out of the starting lineup. The Knicks have fined Marbury $200,000 and the two continue to argue over whether he has to pay it. In practice today, Knicks’ coach Isiah Thomas was asked whether Marbury would return to the Knicks this year. His response: “I don’t know”. The organization needs to move past this distraction and try to regain some respect from the rest of the league. If Marbury is really having a tough time dealing with the loss of his father, he should take as much time as he needs and join a team where he can make a positive impact.

All Star Voting Updates in NBA, NHL:Fan voting for the All Star was released today for both the NHL and NBA. These are only updates as their is still time left to vote for your favorite players, but it seems that fans are doing a good job selecting the starters. In the NBA, the current starters for the East would be Kevin Garnett, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade, and Jason Kidd while the West would counter with Yao Ming, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, and Carmelo Anthony. I agree with nearly everyone one of those choices except for one, Tracy McGrady. How can Chris Paul, who is averaging 22 points and 10 assists per game not make it over T-mac? McGrady averages 23 points and 5 rebounds per game. I know that Nash is dishing out 13 assists per game, but for the Hornets to be at 18-10 right now is a testament to how much Paul means to the team.  Paul deserves the spot. In the NHL, the fans have also done an excellent job selecting starters. The Eastern Conference starters at defense are Andrei Markov and Zdeno Chara, at forward are Sidney Crosby, Vincent Lecavalier, and Daniel Alfredsson, and at goalie is Martin Brodeur. The Western Conference starters at defense are Nicklas Lidstrom and Dion Phaneuf, at forward are Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Jarome Iginla, and at goalie is Roberto Luongo. I agree with all, but one of these: Sidney Crosby. I know he is considered the next Gretzky, the best player in hockey, etc etc. Unfortunately his stats don’t back him up. As stated in my article about the NHL, Dany Heatley deserve a ton of credit for Ottawa’s success and I considered him my early season MVP. For him Sid the Kid to be voted in over Heatley is terrible. They have the identical number of points, but Heatley’s +/- is 29 points higher than Crosby. No way that Crosby gets the spot over Heatley, but that is not going to change as Crosby has become the face of the NHL and will be an All Star game starter for the next decade. Other than that, fans have done a superb job selecting starters and both commissioners should be excited about their leagues’ upcoming All Star Game.

West Virginia Sues Rich Rodriguez for $4 Million: This confuses me and I am sure more details will come out in the upcoming weeks. As a clause in his contract, Rich Rodriguez must pay West Virginia $4 million over 2 years if he opts out of his contract, which he did on December 19th when he left to coach Michigan. A third of the 4 million is due by January 19th yet West Virginia does not expect Rodriguez to pay and decided to sue him. How does Rodriguez expect to get around paying the $4 million? He better have a great legal team to battle this one, because I don’t see any way for the new Michigan coach to avoid paying.

Holiday Bowl:  Number 19 Texas and number 11 Arizona State are currently playing tonight in the Holiday Bowl with Texas leading 28-13 with 11 minutes left in the third quarter. The Longhorns got ahead early with 21 points in the first quarter and have not looked back. Colt McCoy has played a good game with a passing and a rushing touchdown. This match-up of ranked teams has been good with moments of excitement. If Arizona State can turn this game around, it could make for an extremely exciting ending.

Those are the main stories from the sports world today. More Towmorrow