| 07 December 2011
Stephon Marbury might not be that crazy after all.
After 13 years in the NBA, Marbury seems to be basking in the glow this season playing for the Beijing Ducks in the Chinese Basketball Association.
At 34-year-old, he is averaging 22 points and six assists a game for the Ducks, who remain 7-0 on the season. Now with his third team in three seasons in the CBA, Marbury not only is at home in China but equally at peace.
The recent New York Times headline said it all for this former New York Knick: "Away From NBA, Finding Success and Serenity in China".
The above clip featured with the Wall Street Journal continues that story.
Let's move past the "bad boy" label media outlets are throwing on Marbury. Let's applaud his affordable "Starbury" shoe and clothing line, and keep going. Believe it or not, he has remade his image overseas and has become the face of the CBA, in a league which now serves home to J.R. Smith, Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler, Aaron Brooks and Patty Mills.
He's a media icon combined with a basketball God: constantly appears on national TV, writes a column for the China Daily Newspaper and apparently has 163,000 followers on China's version of Twitter.
That's coming a very long way from the tabloid press and headlines Marbury received in his last few years in the NBA. Gone is the bickering drama between Marbury, Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas.
It's since been replaced by peace and a different kind of ink: Marbury now has his Chinese name tatooed across his forearm -- "Mabuli".
Having spent three seasons in New York covering the Knicks and Marbury when I first started writing, there's nothing I haven't seen or heard about Marbury. But like with anyone else, I don't judge and reserve my opinion based on my personal interaction with the person. The last encounter I had with Marbury involved me wiping lotion off of my shoes and pants after he accidentally spilled his bottle on me after a game at Madison Square Garden in 2006.
"Don't worry about it...", Marbury smiled and laughed. Guess that was his way of saying sorry. But those words mean something else five years later.
I'm no longer worried about Stephon Marbury.
Becareful what you call Marbury -- crazy, out there, hanging on to one last hoop dream in a foreign land.
At peace with himself, you just might call Marbury head coach of the Chinese National Team some day.
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