IllmaticDelta
Veteran
my fav player from the 96 draft
Stephon Marbury has finally decided to hang up his sneakers after a 22-year career that saw him become a NBA All-Star and then, more unexpectedly, a true icon in China.
On Sunday, Marbury led his team to victory in the last professional game of basketball that he will ever play in. Just shy of 41 years old, Marbury scored 20 points, including a step-back three in the waning seconds that sent the raucous crowd into a frenzy.
After the final buzzer sounded, Marbury exchanged hugs with his teammates and opponents before going back to the sidelines and breaking down into tears as cameras surrounded him.
Many fans in the Beijing Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium couldn’t help but do the same. In the stands, teary-eyed supporters could be seen holding up signs proclaiming “Ma Buli MVP,” “Ma Buli, I love you,” and “My Hero.”
By the time that Marbury stepped to center stage for a farewell speech, even the always cheerful and perky cheerleaders had tears in their eyes.
“Ending my basketball career here in China completes me. This is it — no NBA, no anywhere. This is the way it’s supposed to end, here with you and only you,” Marbury told the crowd, according Becky Davis of the AFP.
“At one time I had no place for the blood to go, and you opened up a portal to your hearts for me to flow. You let me live when I was dying; I can’t explain how I feel as I’m crying,” he continued as chants of “Ma Buli, M-V-P!” rang out throughout the arena.
to the star.
send him to the HOF
