Stephon Marbury is enjoying life as a celebrity in China, but he admits he was depressed and suicidal at the end of his NBA career.
Marbury was a two-time All-Star known for his ability to score as a point guard. The Brooklyn native was the No. 4 overall pick of the 1996 draft and exhibited plenty of talent, but he also had attitude problems. Those issues came to the forefront during his time with the New York Knicks. Marbury feuded with coaches Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas and ultimately parted ways with the team after losing the starting point guard job in 2009. He even once talked about how he could blackmail Isiah into starting him.
During his time off basketball in 2009, Marbury became known for a live stream he would broadcast on Justin.tv. He garnered a reputation for the odd stunts he would pull on the show, such as the time he ate Vaseline.
Now, in a feature with HBO’s “Real Sports,” Marbury reveals he was depressed and suicidal at the time.
“When everything went on with the Knicks, and, you know, my father passed on, the [Starbury] brand was– it was basically losing life slowly,” Marbury tells HBO Real Sports’ Carl Quintanilla. “And I was watching it. And I think that was hurting me more than seeing my basketball career going in the direction that it was going. … I was trapped in my thoughts. I was trapped in how I felt about how I felt I was treated. I was trapped with decisions that I made.”
The “Starbury” brand refers to Marbury’s shoe line, which was marketed by Steve & Barry’s, which went bankrupt.
“I wanted to die,” Marbury recalls. “I wanted to kill myself some days. I did. … It wasn’t about basketball. It started to become about me. Because I was that depressed and I was that sick.”
Marbury began a playing career in China in 2010 and has had tremendous success. He has won two championships and was honored with a statue. The career in China has been great for Marbury.
“To be told that you’re a loser, that you can’t win, and that you can’t do this, and you can’t do that,” Marbury tells Real Sports. “Then to come someplace without speaking the language with the cultural barriers, to be able to accomplish that– that goal was, is beyond anything. … I left one place where they was basically hating me. And I come to another place where they love me? I’m like, ‘Why would I want to go back to a place where they hate me?’ I mean, that makes no sense to me.”
The only issue for Marbury now seems to be all his debts owed in the U.S. that he seems to not care about. Maybe that’s another sign he has found his place in life in China and does not plan to leave.
Quotes via SI.com
