Stephon Marbury is one of the most talented basketball players to ever come out of New York City. But since he was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks with the fourth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, his career has left many largely unfulfilled.
It hasn’t been because of Marbury’s play on the court itself – few point guards have ever been able to put up the numbers he has throughout his career. He’s averaged over 20 points a game and eight assists a game seven times in his 12-year NBA career, and has made multiple All-Star and All-NBA teams.
No, the reason people have been disappointed, in a nutshell, is because his focus has always been on “Starbury” instead of Marbury. There’s never been enough of a commitment to winning, enough of a commitment to the team, enough of a commitment to buying into a cause bigger than advancing his own numbers or his latest line of shoes.
Marbury has become famous for being traded away from teams, only to have those teams rapidly improve following his departure. After being traded from New Jersey to Phoenix for Jason Kidd, the Nets went to back-to-back NBA Finals. Then, after being dealt from the Suns to the Knicks, Phoenix was able to go out and sign Steve Nash, leading to the run-and-gun Suns under Mike D’Antoni.
For the last several months, Marbury has found himself sitting on the sidelines, mostly because he was unwilling to incorporate himself into D’Antoni’s system with a smaller role. He then was unwilling to give up very much of his 20 million dollar salary, deciding it would be better to sit on the sidelines and collect a paycheck then to find his way to another team. Even amidst reports out of Boston and around the league that the Celtics were interested in his services, Marbury was still defiant, refusing to give up more than a million dollars of his bloated salary.
But Marbury and the Knicks finally came to an agreement on a buyout yesterday, allowing him the opportunity to find his way onto the roster of a playoff team before the March 1 playoff roster deadline. In the wake of reports immediately following the confirmation of the buyout that Marbury and the Celtics were in contract discussions, it seems likely that the player long considered on the NBA’s biggest losers is on his way to the league’s defending champion.
It’s rare that a player as far along into his career as Marbury gets as great an opportunity at redemption as this one. He walks onto a team in desperate need of his services – outside of Eddie House, who’s little more than a shooter, the Celtics have no one to play behind the emerging Rajon Rondo. For a player who has never been on a team that’s won a playoff series, he finds himself on one of the four teams (along with the Lakers, Cavaliers and Spurs) who seem to have a legitimate chance at winning the title.
It also gives Marbury a chance to redeem perhaps the biggest mistake of his career: forcing his way out of a partnership with Kevin Garnett in Minnesota. Looking back, it’s little surprise that their time in Minnesota, as great as it could have been, was doomed from the start. Marbury, for all of his talent, has never seen past himself. Garnett, at times to his detriment, has spent his career focused on doing what’s best for his team.
Now, as his career is much closer to its end than its beginning, Marbury gets another chance to play alongside his sidekick from that far-away time in Minneapolis when he lobbing alley-oops to Garnett. If he takes advantage of the opportunity, he could forever change the perceptions people have about him and his career. If he doesn’t, there won’t be another one coming.
It’s time for Marbury to put up or shut up. It’s time to see if he can play a bit role for a team chasing a title, or if Starbury always has to be the headlining attraction.
