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Jones: For Stephon Marbury, a special turnaround

 
Published March 28, 2015

He has gone from thoughts of suicide to basketball legend, albeit in another part of the world.

Stephon Marbury spent 13 years in the NBA. He made two All-Star Games and even developed a shoe that was supposed to be affordable for all kids. But the company that made the shoe went out of business, his father died, and his return to his hometown became a nightmare when he was the face of a truly awful Knicks team in the mid 2000s. Marbury said later he had thoughts of killing himself.

In 2010 he left for China, where he said he wanted to build a dynasty. Last week Marbury won a third championship in four years while playing for the Beijing Ducks. He has become one of the country's biggest sports stars and was named one of the country's top 10 model citizens.

"I feel forever indebted to China," Marbury told the New York Post. "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, and then to come someplace without speaking the language, with the cultural barriers, to be able to accomplish (what I have) 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 wanna go back to a place where they hate me?' That makes no sense."