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Marbury at the heart of new Knicks season
BY ALAN HAHN
Newsday Staff Correspondent
October 29, 2006
GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- You just don't want to like him. Some players just have that kind of vibe. It starts with a contemptuous scowl that seems fixed on his face. He is an image of everything that you probably can't stand about the NBA: the unrefined inner-city thug who barely spent a year on a college campus before multi-millions were thrown at him at the age of 19.
"I went to college to go to the NBA," Stephon Marbury said. "I didn't go to college to be a doctor."
Starbury doesn't, as he put it, front. He may live in the Westchester hills, but his act still is all Brooklyn street. At least that's what he wants us to see. He speaks the truth, such as his comment about the semester-and-a-half he spent at Georgia Tech in 1995-96. Some of you are appalled, and he knows it. But consider this: If after you spent one year in law school, a top firm offered you a lucrative position for guaranteed money and said there was no need to pass the bar, what would you do?
"No one wants to tell that story," Marbury said. "I'm not afraid to say that and be that. So that's why it's like I'm the person people love to hate."
Isiah Thomas says "there's a vulnerable, sweet side" to Marbury. It's something we rarely get to see of the guy who wears Knicks uniform No. 3.
On the surface, the perception of Marbury is he is petulant, uncompromising and not a winner. He packs a powerful game in a muscular 6-2 body and is the kind of prolific scorer who puts the point in point guard. But his personality off the court, at least in the public eye (read: the media that cover him every day), suggests guard is more than just a position.
It's something he constantly keeps up.
"I am who I am," Marbury said. "You guys don't know me because you're not around me. You come here, do interviews and leave. You see me play basketball and then hear stuff from other people. So it's basically like one story that gets told to 100 people. By the time the story gets to the 99th person, the story has changed. So that's what has happened over my career."
Bitter? You think? Marbury has been chased by the things he's said as much as by the things that have been written and said about him. From his contentious departure from the Minnesota Timberwolves to his assertion that he is the best point guard in the NBA, Marbury unwittingly has been his own worst enemy, and the media always have been willing to pile it on.
But then we catch a glimpse of an unfettered smile. An earnest tone in his voice. Marbury the hardcore player is humanized.
It started last year when he broke into tears during a news conference at which he pledged more than a half-million dollars toward Hurricane Katrina relief. It revealed itself again at the end of a a 41-city tour over 19 days in September to promote the trend-bucking $15 "Starbury" sneaker brand he introduced with Steve & Barry's. A huge crowd awaited him at a mall in Syracuse, and as they cheered his arrival, Marbury was overwhelmed by the turnout.
"It was a gratifying, touching moment in my life," Marbury said. "I got to experience something I never got to experience before."
It's called "feeling the love." Michael Jordan has bathed in it for two decades. He hasn't been on an NBA court in more than three years, but his Air Jordan sneakers still sell, some for $185 or more. You see, Brand Jordan has been and always will be a money-driven project.
"This," Marbury said of his Starbury Brand, "wasn't a money-driven project."
Steve & Barry's president, Andy Todd, believes Marbury "took a risk" by partnering with his company, which keeps costs low by not advertising on television and had never before dealt with a professional endorsement.
It also could be said that Steve & Barry's, a widely respected chain, took a risk with Marbury, whose image is synonymous with the Knicks' downfall since the Roaring '90s.
But whether intended or not, Marbury's image is undergoing a needed transformation. He may put up the hard exterior, but it seems mostly motivated by his need to maintain Brooklyn-born credibility while living at a tony Westchester address.
"I've tried to explain to him that it's OK to be that nice guy that you really are," Thomas said, "as opposed to having to carry the armor."
Thomas' presence on the Knicks' bench this season is exactly what Marbury wanted, especially after the contentious season with Larry Brown. Thomas, at least right now, relates better to Marbury.
"No question. From the road he had to go down, he sees the same things as me," Marbury said. "That's why it's easy for us to communicate. That's why our relationship is how it is . . . I mean, our conversations are a lot deeper. It's not about basketball most of the time. It's about changing who you are as a man."
As his 30th birthday approaches this February, Marbury has revealed several changes in his perceived personality. During the preseason he acknowledged his age and talked about wanting to win a championship. He talked about how "it's not about scoring and it's not about assists anymore, it's about winning."
If it truly is, then Marbury's perceived image might actually be on par with the other side of him, which is seen only away from basketball. You can sell all the sneakers you want for $15, but, as former NBA guard and fellow New Yorker Kenny Smith said, "They'll still boo you with your sneakers on."
Bottom line, and Marbury knows it, is perceptions about him won't change until he changes the fortune of the Knicks.
"To me it doesn't matter," he said. "If you're winning, you can do no wrong."
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10/28/2006 10:28 PM
