"Stephon Marbury has finally revealed the cause of his tumultuous tenure with the Knicks - posttraumatic stress disorder following his father's sudden death.

The embattled former All-Star told his sob story to ESPN last week, saying it wasn't just clashes with team coaches that plagued his time in New York - it was the same clinically diagnosed illness that haunts many Iraq war vets.

"I had posttraumatic stress from different things going on," Marbury told ESPN. "\[My psychiatrist\] told me, 'You're a mess, basically.' "

"Everything that I went through this \[season\], it was tough," he said.

But less than three months after leaving New York for the Boston Celtics, Marbury said many of his demons are behind him.

"To end up in this situation, it's like you go from hell to being in heaven," he said.

Marbury discussed at length the despair he suffered after his father died during a Dec 2, 2007, game between the Knicks and the Phoenix Suns.

"I basically lost my mind when my father died," he said. "I was in shock. Going to a psychiatrist was the best thing I ever did."

Marbury defended himself after many blamed him for sparking a number of controversies during his 13 years in the NBA. Being traded to the Knicks in 2004, the phenom. out of Coney Island said, "\[It\] was one of the happiest times of my life because I got an opportunity to play for the team I idolized.

"Going home was going to be perfect for me," he said.

Though he described his relationship with former Knicks coach Isiah Thomas as "super tight," his relationship with the Knicks was far from perfect.

He was a constant source of tumult for the squad under the three Knicks coaches he played for.

The problems came to a boiling point during the sexual harassment case that a Madison Square Garden employee brought against the organization, in which Marbury testified that he had sex with a former Knicks intern. It is believed that his testimony was extremely damaging to the case against Thomas and the organization.

"It seemed like after the sexual harassment case, things was different," Marbury said of his relationship with Thomas.

The coach whom he once spoke with "religiously" benched him, and Marbury's days on the court as a Knick stated to fade.

Shortly after, Mike D'Antoni took over as head coach and Marbury's playing time was over. The fallen star presented himself as the victim of a coach who did not want him on the team.

"I worked my butt off," Marbury said of the off-season before D'Antoni took over. "I was coming to dominate.""