Stephon Marbury's cloudy NBA legacy

11/3/08
stephon marbury
By Max J. Dickstein

Stephon Marbury's cloudy NBA legacy

Photo credit: Game Face

Stephon Marbury, October 2008 (Image from Getty Images)

By Kevin Garrity

Special to amNewYork

His rise from Coney Island high school All-American to NBA star was a swift one. There was so much promise for Stephon Marbury after he led the Lincoln High Railsplitters to the city title in 1995. After one year at Georgia Tech, the point guard was chosen fourth overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1996 NBA draft, then traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Three teams and 12 years later, as his tenure with the Knicks winds down, do we look back at Marbury’s career and say what if? Or do we give him a pat on the back for a very solid NBA tour?

In a recent Snap Poll on Sports on 1, we asked our viewers how they would characterize Marbury’s career. Fifty-three percent of those polled felt that Marbury “never lived up to expectations.” But one can argue his career has been above average. Marbury is a two-time All-Star and 2004 Olympian who, until 2003, was the only player in NBA history other than Oscar Robertson with career averages of 20 points and 8 assists. (The 31-year-old’s career averages now stand at 19.7 points and 7.8 assists.)

Marbury is a complex figure, from his run-ins with coaches to his admission in federal court during the Anucha Browne Sanders trial last year that he had a relationship with a Knicks intern. Such episodes speak to a questionable character.

But Marbury also put his name on a sneaker that sells for just 15 dollars, cried uncontrollably at an NBA press conference for Hurricane Katrina relief (to which he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars) and, after he was traded from the Nets to the Phoenix Suns in 2001, held a press conference on his front lawn in Alpine, N.J., where he made sure to shake the hand of every reporter and photographer who gathered there to record his goodbye.

Will the Knicks be better off without Marbury when his contract runs out after this season — or if Knicks president Donnie Walsh can jettison him sooner than that? Absolutely.

But coach Mike D’Antoni can’t convince me that Mardy Collins, Jerome James and Anthony Roberson deserve to suit up while Marbury, the most talented player on a bad team, collects his millions from the bench.
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Stephon Marbury's cloudy NBA legacy

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