Stephon Marbury Is Taking His Game And Shoes To China

Stephon Marbury Is Taking His Game and Shoes to China
January 25, 2010 – 9:05 am by timgunter
Former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury is heading to China to play basketball for Shanxi Zhongyu but this looks more like a business move. Marbury, founder of Starbury shoes, wants to use his time in China to give out free basketball shoes and win over the Chinese people in hopes of selling more shoes and catching on in the biggest market in the world. Shanxi is sitting near the bottom of the Chinese Basketball Association table with three wins and ten losses but hopes that Marbury can come in and contribute to help this team turn the corner for the better. I am not sure if this is the right move for them because sometimes Marbury just doesn’t want to play. He would rather sit around and smoke marijuana and videotape himself eating Vaseline.

Stephon Marbury joined the Dan Patrick Show to talk about how he came to the decision to play in China, whether the move to China is more about marketing than basketball, and what he knows about basketball in China.On how he came to the decision to play in China:“Well the opportunity came about a month and a half ago or about two months ago. They had asked me about going over there to play. You know I was kind of undecided because I was planning on taking a year off, but I can’t get away from basketball.”On when is the last time he heard from an NBA team:“Well I have spoken to Boston but the situation was not going to work out from my standpoint. So I pretty much got off the radar as far as going back to Boston and possibly talking to other teams. I think Boston they were probably going more so in another direction because the direction that I was going to go was a different direction.”Whether he thinks he is being “blackballed” by other teams in the NBA:“I don’t think I am being blackballed.”Why there isn’t a spot on any team’s roster as young and as good as he is:“I pretty much took the liberty to basically sit back and relax. I went through a lot of different things the last three years. After the playoffs I had to kind of evaluate what I wanted to do and focus in on my businesses and my company was important and when this China opportunity came about, I put all of what I am doing with my brand, Starbury, it made sense to me to go and play in China being that was an opportunity for me.”Whether the move to China is more about marketing than basketball:“Both. I mean I want to play basketball. I want to get back into the game. I know that I can still play and that I have a lot to give. When I went to Boston I started out slow and then you know when the playoffs came about during the Orlando series I started to get my legs under me and I was able to fit into the system and play the way I was capable of playing.”What he knows about basketball in China:“I know that they love basketball and that they are really excited about me coming. That is a plus and there is a lot of positive energy from what I have been hearing from me going over there to play.”When he leaves for China:“Monday.” (interview was on Friday)
Are you nervous?“No I am not nervous. It is not like I am going to be gone for a long time. I am only going to be gone for about a month and a half. So it is not like I am going to be gone for a year or anything. It is a great experience and is going to be something different. I am going to document it so I will have some more footage on my history of playing basketball and be experiencing a new culture.”Whether he will be able to get his videos he makes out of China and back to the US:“I am going to save them. I am going to save them and build a portfolio and basically create a library.”On the videos he has created and how much is serious and how much is he playing around:“Like I said, it was all fun and it was entertainment. People don’t know me and they have never seen that side of me they wouldn’t know. They would think that I shouldn’t have done it and I apologize, like the whole marijuana situation, I apologize for doing that. That was wrong for that whole situation coming about. I learned my lesson from it, which was a very valuable lesson. That wasn’t something that I did all the time but it was something that happened and something that I did. I had to stand on what I did and I was wrong for it. What I was doing is something that I did. It wasn’t nothing that I was malicious out of it. I wasn’t trying to hurt nobody. I wasn’t doing nothing to harm anyone.”Whether he is still getting high:“No. No.”Whether they drug test in China:“I don’t know and if they did that wouldn’t be something that would affect me.”Stephon Marbury on Dan Patrick talking about his latest move to play basketball in China
Tags: basketball in China, CBA, Chinese Basketball Association, Chinese government, former Georgia Tech player, former GT player, playing basketball in China, playing for the Communists, Shanxi basketball, Starbury, Stephon Marbury

Post a Comment

Name (required)

E-mail (will not be published) (required)

Website