By MARC BERMAN

No matter what you think of Stephon Marbury, no matter how many times you want to bury him, he’s not going away anytime soon. With Steve Francis on the outs, banished to Houston rehab purgatory, the Knicks are once again building around Marbury to run the show and “The Eddy Curry Offense.” And now he’s got a new show to run – as we reported today. Marbury is nothing but persistent and he shopped the concept of a sports TV talk show for a year before he finally found a taker in Fox SportsNet. It might debut as soon as March, with Marbury as host.

To run with the “Heeere’s Starbury” piece, we ran a picture of Marbury in the famed “Carnac The Magnificent” turban hat. Marbury got a kick out of it. “That was funny as hell,” he said at the morning shootaround.

The Knicks apparently are starting to market Marbury again to the fans. On the scoreboard during the Philly victory Wednesday, Marbury was featured in a tribute video, with his highlights of the past few weeks.

The scoreboard even mentioned the fact he once donated $1 million to the Katrina Relief Fund – a fact that hadn’t been mentioned in a while. Marbury broke down in a press conference when he announced the pledge, sat there crying for minutes. It was one of the most awkward moments I’ve ever had as a journalist. The whole scene showed that Marbury has a big heart, but some also wondered if everything was OK with his personal life.

From the tone of the Garden crowd, the fans are with Marbury again. And certainly, just as curiousity, a lot of Knick fans are goingto tune in to see Marbury run the show from the talk-show desk.

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Thomas said this morning he still hoped to talk to Webber by phone today. Sounds like just a courtesy Webber is extending Thomas.