As you’d expect, Stephon Marbury wasn’t on hand for the Knicks’ 36 point defeat to the Cleveland LeBrons last night, and in stark contrast to most of the national press (this blog included), Sports On My Mind’s MODI considers the point guard to be “an imperfect hero in an imperfect package,” and “the perfect role model.” “Most sports media mocks what they don™t understand. Because if it didn™t, then it would recognize Stephon Marbury as ” warts and all “ the greatest ‘person-athlete’ of our times.”
You want to talk about the truck where Marbury famously requested and received consensual sex from a Knick employee. Yeah, you want to talk about œthe truck Mr. Adande ” but not œthe 18-wheelers. That™s right, I want to talk about the two 18-wheelers that Marbury rolled into his hometown Coney Island with 75,000 items of free merchandise during œStarbury GiveBack Day. ¦Or how Marbury visits youth on the first day of school¦. or how youth must read three books to play in his charity tournament, or how Marbury™s youth outreach efforts were in full effect both as a member of the Phoenix Suns and the New Jersey Nets before that.
ESPN doesn™t want you to know Stephon Marbury either. The man is simply too complex to fit into their œgood-vs.-evil-only sports narratives. Besides, black villains get much higher ratings than black visionaries. When Tony Romo took a homeless man to the movies last month ESPN.com was on the scene, just as it was when Romo helped a man fix a flat tire. ESPN The Magazine soon wondered: œWhy is Tony Romo such a Good Samaritan?, and all of ESPN™s afternoon shows had effusive praise culminating in one œPardon The Interruption (PTI) pundit exclaiming: œHow can you not love Tony Romo!
Well, here is one way: Don™t report any of his good deeds! Ignore him like you did Marbury watching the presidential debates in a homeless shelter just a month prior. Ignore his annual charity events; ignore his Katrina response; ignore his record-setting donations, and ignore that a great week in the life of Tony Romo is like breathing to Stephon Marbury. But ESPN did not report ANY of these stories. His revolutionary $15 sneaker? Pardon the Interruption had this headline: œCan Marbury repair his image? ¦Well, not if ESPN keeps framing it!
I actually pitched a piece with a similar argument to a magazine a couple weeks back. They declined it — nicely, which I appreciated — on the grounds that such a defense wasn’t, you know, totally possible. This is proof both that such a defense is possible and that the mag was probably right to decline it. Because while all of the above is true…the guy’s really actually as bad a teammate as those (sneering, admittedly bullshit and probably bigoted) pundits say.
that’s certainly the rep, but I was grateful for the piece in question, just the same, if only to remind the rest of us (present company included) that Marbury isn’t a pariah to every hoops fan and/or person wanting cheap kicks. The Romo comparison was valid — Kornheiser really did say, “how can you not like Tony Romo?”
I can’t fault Marbury in his situation: if a new coach and GM said I had no role in their plans and, after a wave of injuries to guards, came saying, “well, we have some PT for you now,” I could understand telling them to go pound sand.
Marbury may be a bad teammate, but everyone has their pride.
I totally agree. FREE STEPH!!!