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Long story, highlighted
From NY Times
From NY Times
Stephon Marbury gave away $4 million in June — a remarkable and noble gesture that probably has little chance of being cited when it comes time to reflect on the major events of the N.B.A.’s off-season.
Marbury later gave away shoes, sports apparel and haircuts, all part of a campaign, he said, to “help people change their lives.” He is projecting a renewed faith, referring earnestly and often to “the path” he is on. He said is he trying not to curse anymore.
But this will not be remembered as Marbury’s Summer of Giving or his Summer of Spirituality, but rather — to borrow an old John Cusack film title — as his “One Crazy Summer.”
This was Marbury’s YouTube summer, an off-season filled with “He said what?” moments and “Is something wrong with him?” exclamations and laughter at his expense. He delivered a street-preacher-style rant praising the Knicks’ acquisition of Zach Randolph. He defended, or seemed to defend, Michael Vick. He declared in a blog for a New York newspaper that he would leave the Knicks in two years to play in Italy. He compared himself favorably to David Beckham, the international soccer star.
Yet nothing left as indelible an imprint as a 9-minute-37-second television appearance July 1. It is still being talked about and, thanks to YouTube, drawing curious new viewers all the time. (Watch the YouTube Video)
Marbury’s behavior in the interview could generously be described as odd or goofy or perhaps erratic. No one has been that generous.
“Incoherent mumbling, cellphone calls mid-interview and a bizarre bopping and dancing routine,” Peter Schrager of FoxSports.com wrote.
“Surreal,” ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons wrote.
Even Gilbert Arenas, the Washington Wizards star who has fashioned himself as the N.B.A.’s leading eccentric, weighed in. “If you don’t think this is the best interview in history, something is mentally wrong with you,” Arenas wrote on his NBA.com blog. “It was so good, I watched it 12 times.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the video had been viewed 281,482 times on YouTube. And Marbury, the Knicks’ star point guard, knows what those viewers are thinking.
“I’m crazy, I’m on drugs, I’m high every day,” he said, without much amusement in his voice, in a recent telephone interview.
For the record, Marbury, 30, insists he is sane, sober, drug free and, incidentally, as happy as he has ever been. If he seemed a little sideways on the now infamous interview on “Mike’d Up” — a Sunday night show on New York’s Channel 4 — it is only because “people don’t know me,” he said.
“They don’t see me in my household laughing, bugging out and playing jokes on each other,” he said.
Here is what TV viewers did see: Some rambling responses, a number of non sequiturs and a few hard-to-decipher statements, such as Marbury telling Bruce Beck that he is not shooting for a trophy. “I shoot to win, because I shoot to win, and that’s it.” He explains a donation to teachers by saying, “I can’t give them what they need if they don’t have it.”
The most striking moments begin seven minutes into the segment, when Marbury’s cellphone rings. He apologizes, saying it is “my better half” calling. It sounds as if Marbury then uses a vulgar term to describe the caller before going on to say that it’s “my better half, my wife.”
Minutes later, Marbury looks off stage and, with eyes wide and mouth agape, starts weaving his arms back and forth, as if dancing in his seat. “Check it out: I do this like that to keep me closer to the light!” he said.
Beck mimics the moves as he segues to a break, while a delighted Marbury shouts over him from off camera. “Give it to me one time!” he says. “I’m bringing it out of you, Brucie baby! Yeah! I want to see the spit on your mouth! Yeah!”
If the off-kilter performance concerned Knicks officials — and there are murmurings around the league that it did — they are not saying so publicly. Isiah Thomas, the team’s coach and president, and a Marbury confidant, has not spoken to reporters since early July. He was cautious when asked about the “Mike-d Up” interview at the time, saying, “I’ve heard about it, but I haven’t seen it.” A team spokesman said that Thomas, whose sexual-harassment trial begins Monday, would not comment for this article.
Marbury, meanwhile, shows little tolerance for the mockery and insists that he did not use a slur to refer to his wife. “Come on, be for real,” he said.
As for the unusual exuberance, Marbury said he was merely having fun with Beck.
When it was suggested the burst of frivolity might have shocked viewers used to seeing the moody version of Marbury that roams the court, Marbury shot back, “Because you don’t know me, and because you haven’t seen me, that means I’m on crack?”
Marbury’s Knicks career would seem to be winding down. Team officials appear almost indifferent to the idea that he may walk away in two years when his contract expires. Before this summer, the Knicks periodically floated Marbury’s name in trade discussions, although other teams are wary of his contract ($42 million remaining) and his poor locker-room reputation.
The negative perceptions are nothing new to Marbury, who has been a magnet for criticism throughout his 11-year career.
“I don’t even call them ‘haters’ no more. I call them ‘lovers,’ ” Marbury said of his critics. “Because they really love you, because they think about you and talk about you all day long.”
They are probably not talking about the donations Marbury pledged in June — $1 million each to New York City’s police and fire departments, emergency services and teachers. The acts of charity are at least partly related to Marbury’s recommitment to his faith.
In the recent phone interview, Marbury said he has “always been a Christian,” but more recently came to “understand exactly my purpose on this Earth.”
“I’m a giver,” he said.
The low-cost sneakers and large donations are only the beginning, Marbury said. When his playing days are over, he plans to dedicate his time and money to affordable housing and health care. “There’s so many different things that need to be done,” he said.
While Marbury said he has become “more open with my spirituality” to set a positive example for children, he also has to deal with his link to the sexual-harassment lawsuit filed against Thomas by a former team executive. Marbury is not a defendant, but in a deposition admits to making profane, derisive comments about the former employee, Anucha Browne Sanders. Court papers also allege that Marbury, who is married, had an affair with a member of Browne Sanders’s staff. Marbury said he could not comment on the lawsuit.
So the off-season will end more or less as it began, with the public trying to decipher Marbury’s deeds and words and actions.
“I’m in the best place in my life, man,” he said. “It seems like people don’t like when you grow. They don’t like when you get older and you get wiser. I came into the N.B.A. when I was 18. I’m 30 years old. If I didn’t take the time to grow, something’s wrong.”
The telephone interview ended with that six-sentence statement. But it was the last two words that perhaps resonated inadvertently.
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