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Reader question: In the story about Stephon Marbury playing in China (Marbury returns to basketball, joins Brave Dragons, AP, February 6, 2010), the former NBA star said of his future in basketball: “I’m going to let the chips fall where they may.” What does that mean? My comments: He means to say he’s focused on the jobs at hand, which is to help his new team win and to promote his brand of basketball shoes in China, and not worried about whether he’ll ever be able to return to the NBA. In other words, he’s not worried about the consequences of his crossing the big pond to play “in a parched, polluted city in China”, and for negligible money – US$100,000, negligible at any rate by the former max-money player’s one time high standard. Instead, he’s going to allow the future to unfold however it may. “Let the chips fall where they may” is an American idiom which was probably developed from wood logging. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, this phrase dates back to the late 1800s. In those days, trailblazers going west presumably had a lot of wood to chop along the way. And when you chop wood, chips (small pieces) are going to fall hither and thither, that is, everywhere. To allow chips to fall where they may is, hence, to focus on the main task and not be distracted by trivial details or petty consequences. In other words, you’re not going to stop chopping just because chips are flying left, right and center. | 
