A Stephon Marbury article with much larger implications

The writer of this compelling piece is amazingly still an undergraduate in college. Portions of his NBA analysis may or may not be accurate but we want to read more from him. Ultimately, this article should be on the must-read list for every aspiring basketballer.

Requiem for a Shooter
How did Steph get to where he is now?
John Krolik
Slam
August 2, 2009

I know, I know. Does the world really need another Stephon Marbury article? In the week and change since Stephon’s bizarre foray into the depths of Web 2.0, there’s not much we haven’t heard people say about Marbury. He’s desperate for attention. He’s having a nervous breakdown. He’s trying to make a difference. He’s found himself. He’s on the cutting edge of direct connection to the fans. He’s everything that’s wrong with new media. He’s just nuts.

But here’s the question that begs to be answered above all others: How did all of this happen? It was only two years ago that Marbury was a max-money starting point guard for the New York Knicks. How did end up spending most of his waking hours talking into a webcam, baring his soul to any of the increasingly few people willing to listen? It’s likely nobody really knows the answer to that question, including Marbury himself. But a look into Marbury’s journey to this point reveals reasons to believe that the factors behind Marbury’s fall from grace are more complex than they appear at first blush.

Stephon Marbury, at 32, is younger than both of the starting point guards in last year’s NBA Finals. Twenty-one of those 32 years have been spent in the national spotlight, as he was named the world’s best sixth grader by Hoop Scoop magazine at age 11. The first article published about him that received major circulation was written for Harper’s when he was 14 years old, a freshman at Coney Island’s Lincoln High School. The article would later be extended into Darcey Frey’s The Last Shot, for my money the best basketball book ever written...

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